BANCROFT    LIBRARY 


THE 


SHORTEST  ROUTE  TO  CALIFORNIA 


ILLUSTRATED    BY   A 


HISTORY  OF  EXPLORATIONS 


OF   THE 


GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH 


WITH    ITS 


TOPOGRAPHICAL  AND  GEOLOGICAL  CHARACTER 


AND   SOME    ACCOUNT    OF    THE 


IISTDIAK"    TEIBES. 


BY 

BREYET  BRIG.-GENERAL  J.  H.  SIMPSON,  A.M., 

COLONEL   CORPS  OP   ENGINEERS,  U.  S.  ARMY. 


, 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.    LIPPING  OTT    &    CO. 

1869. 


R 

Sbi 
x 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  by 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT    &    CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 


PREFACE. 


THE  writer  of  the  following  pages,  in  the  years  1858-59,  was 
Chief  Topographical  Engineer  of  the  Army  of  Utah.  While 
serving  in  this  capacity,  he-  explored  and  opened,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  War  Department,  a  wagon  route  from  the 
valley  of  Great  Salt  Lake  across  the  Great  Basin  of  Utah, 
by  which  he  shortened  the  distance  between  Great  Salt  Lake 
and  San  Francisco  more  than  two  hundred  miles.  As  the 
features,  topographical,  geological,  and  ethnological,  of  the 
country  explored  by  him  have  never  been  published,  he  has 
deemed  it  due  to  the  public,  the  army,  and  himself,  that  some 
general  account  of  the  same  should  be  presented,  and,  in  con- 
nection, a  history  of  the  explorations  of  the  Great  Basin  from 
the  earliest  records  extant. 

A  detailed  report  of  the  writer's  explorations  in  Utah, 
accompanied  by  sub-reports  on  the  various  subjects  connected 
therewith,  from  some  of  the  most  distinguished  professors  in 
the  country,  was  submitted  to  the  Government  early  in  1861; 
but  its  publication  has  never  been  ordered  by  Congress. 


(3) 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH. 


THE  country  known  since  the  date  of  the  explora- 
tions of  Fremont  in  1843  and  '44,  by  his  appellation 
of  the  Great  Basin,  has,  since  the  days  of  Fathers 
Silvestre  Yelez  Escalante  and  Francisco  Atanacio 
Dominguez,  in  1776,  been  of  great  interest.  This 
interest  has  grown  out  of  its  inaccessibility  on  ac- 
count of  extended  deserts;  its  occupancy  by  Indians 
of  an  exceedingly  low  type,  who  subsist  chiefly  on 
roots,  grass-seed,  rats,  lizards,  grasshoppers,  etc.;  and 
the  laudable  curiosity  which  prevails  in  the  minds  of 
men  to  know  the  physical  characteristics  of  a  country 
which  until  a  very  recent  period  has  been  a  terra  in- 
cognita. 

The  Great  Basin  has  a  triangular  shape,  nearly 
that  of  a  right-angle  triangle,  the  mountains  to  the 
north  of  the  Humboldt  River  and  Great  Salt  Lake 
constituting  the  northern  limit  or  border,  and  form- 
ing one  leg  of  the  triangle;  the  Sierra  Nevada,  or 
western  limit,  the  other  equal  leg;  and  the  Wasatch 
Kange,  to  the  east  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  the  short 
mountain  ranges  and  plateau  country  to  the  north 
of  the  Santa  Fe  and  Los  Angeles  Caravan  or  Span- 
ish trail  route,  the  hypothenuse.  These  limits  are 
embraced  approximately  within  the  lllth  and  120th 

(5) 


6  THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA,. 

degrees  of  west  longitude  from  Greenwich,  and  the 
34th  and  43d  degrees  of  north  latitude;  or  within 
a  limit  of  nine  degrees  of  longitude  and  nine  of 
latitude. 

The  earliest  record  we  have  of  any  examination  of 
this  basin  is  derived  from  the  journal  of  Father  Esca- 
lante, descriptive  of  the  travels  of  himself  and  party,  in 
1776-77,  from  Santa  Fe  to  Lake  Utah,  by  him  called 
Laguna  de  Nuestra  Senora  de  la  Merced  de  Timpanogot- 
zis9  and  also  Lake  Timpanogo;  and  thence  to  Oraybe, 
one  of  the  villages  of  the  Moquis,  and  back  to  Santa 
Fe.  (See  accompanying  map.)  A  manuscript  copy  of 
this  journal,  in  the  Spanish  language,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  rare  and  valuable  library  of  the  late  Peter 
Force,  which  has  recently  been  purchased  by  Con- 
gress. By  this  manuscript  we  learn  that  Escalante 
explored  as  far  north,  doubtless,  as  the  Timpanogos 
River,  by  him  called  the  Rio  San  Antonio  de  Padua; 
and  as  he  alludes  to  the  lake,  now  called  Utah  Lake, 
emptying  itself  into  a  large  body  of  salt  water  farther 
north,  there  can  be  no  question  that  he  was  also  cog- 
nizant of  the  existence  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 

The  destination  of  Escalante,  his  journal  shows, 
was  Monterey  on  the  Pacific  coast;  but,  being  forced 
most  probably  by  the  desert  immediately  west  of 
Lake  Utah  to  take  the  so-called  southern  or  Los  An- 
geles route,  which  Bonneville's  party  in  1834,  and 
Fremont  in  1844,  followed,  and  finding  that,  while 
making  a  great  deal  of  southing,  he  had  made  but 
little  progress  toward  Monterey,  his  provisions  giving 
out,  and  fearing  the  approach  of  winter,  with  some 
difficulty  he  prevailed  upon  his  party  to  abandon  the 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  J 

idea  of  reaching  Monterey  and  return  to  Santa  Fe  by 
the  way  of  the  villages  of  the  Moquis  and  of  Zuni.* 

The  next  authentic  record  which  shows  that  any 
portion  of  the  Great  Basin  system  was  explored  at  an 
early  date  is  to  be  found  on  the  map  entitled  "Ap- 
pendiente  al  Diario  que  formo  el  P.  F.  Pedro  Font  del 
mage  que  hizo  a  Monterey  y  puerto  de  San  Francisco,  y 
del  mage  que  hizo  el  P.  Garces  al  Moqui.  P.  F.  Pe- 
trus  Font  fecit,  Tabutana,  Anno  1777,"  which  may  be 
freely  translated  as  follows:  "A  Supplement  to  the 
Diary  made  by  Father  F.  Pedro  Font  of  his  journey 
to  Monterey  and  San  Francisco,  and  of  Father  Garces' 
to  Moquis,  platted  by  P.  F.  Petrus  Font,  at  Tabu- 
tana,  in  the  year  1777."  A  copy  of  this  map  was 
sent,  several  years  since,  to  the  Bureau  of  U.  S.  En- 
gineers, Washington  City,  by  Captain  now  Brevet 

*  Humboldt,  in  his  "New  Spain,"  translated  by  John  Black, 
second  edition,  London,  vol.  i.  chap,  ii  p.  22,  says,  "  These  re- 
gions," referring  to  those  between  the  Colorado  and  Lake  Tim- 
panogos  (Utah  Lake),  "  abounding  in  rock  salt,  were  examined 
in  1777  by  two  travelers  full  of  zeal  and  intrepidity,  monks  of 
the  Order  of  St.  Francis,  Father  Escalante  and  Father  Antonio 
Velez" 

According  to  the  manuscript  narrative  of  these  travels  by 
Father  Escalante,  referred  to  above,  we  find  that  Friar  Francisco 
Atanacio  Dominguez,  and  not  Velez,  was  associated  with  Esca- 
lante in  these  explorations.  It  is  something  singular,  however, 
that  Escalante's  name  was  Silvestre  Velez  Escalante.  Can  it  be 
that  Humboldt  has  fallen  into  the  error  of  making  two  distinct 
persons  out  of  this  father's  name,  and  of  omitting  that  of  Do- 
minguez altogether  ?  Or  did  a  monk  by  name  Antonio  Yelez 
explore  this  region  separately  from  the  others  and  in  the  same 
year?  We  notice,  also,  that  Humboldt  dates  Escalante's  journey 
A.D.  1777.  The  manuscript  shows  that  it  was  commenced  July 
29,  1776,  and  terminated  in  January,  1777. 


8  THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO  CALIFORNIA. 

Major-General  Ord,  U.  S.  Army,  from  an  original  in 
the  archives  of  California;  and  is  quite  interesting,  as 
showing  the  large  number  of  Spanish  settlements  in 
Middle  Sonora  at  the  time  of  the  travels  of  Fathers 
Font  and  Garces,  and  the  exact  routes  explored  by 
them. 

According  to  this  map,  Father  Garces  traveled,  as 
early  as  1777  (Humboldt  says  in  1773*),  from  the 
mission  of  San  Gabriel,  near  Los  Angeles  on  the 
Pacific  coast  in  California,  to  Oraybe,  one  of  the  vil- 
lages of  the  Moquis,  and  his  route  was  along  the  Rio 
de  las  Matires  (evidently,  from  its  position,  the  Mo- 
jave).  Fremont  and  others  supposed  that  the  Mojave 
was  a  tributary  of  the  Colorado  and  therefore  did 
not  belong  to  the  Great  Basin  system;  but  this  idea 
was  exploded  by  Lieutenant  now  Brevet  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Williamson,  Major  Corps  of  U.  S.  Engineers, 
in  1853,  and  afterward  by  Lieutenant  now  Brevet 
Major-General  Parke,  Major  Corps  of  Engineers,  in 
1855;  both  of  whom  fully  determined  that  this  stream 
sank,  and  that  between  it  and  the  Colorado  was  a 
ridge  which  separated  the  waters.f 

In  this  connection,  it  may  be  interesting  to  observe 
that  Humboldt,  speaking  of  the  delay  on  the  part  of 
the  Spaniards,  notwithstanding  their  enterprising 
spirit,  in  opening  communications  between  New  Mex- 
ico and  California,  holds  the  following  language: 

"The  letter  post  still  (at  the  date  of  his  researches, 
in  1803-4)  goes  from  this  post  (San  Diego)  along  the 

*  See  his  "New  Spain,"  vol.  ii.  p.  268. 

j"  Pacific  Railroad  Reports,  vol.  v.  p.  33,  and  vol.  vii.  p.  3. 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  9 

northwest  coast  to  San  Francisco.  This  last  estab- 
lishment, the  most  northern  of  all  the  Spanish  posses- 
sions of  the  new  continent,  is  almost  under  the  same 
parallel  with  the  small  town  of  Taos  in  New  Mexico. 
It  is  not  more  than  300  leagues  distant  from  it;  and 
though  Father  Escalante,  in  his  apostolical  excur- 
sions in  1777,  advanced  along  the  western  bank  of  the 
river  Zagnananas  toward  the  mountains  de  los  Gua- 
caros,  no  traveler  has  yet  come  from  New  Mexico  to 
the  coast  of  New  California.  This  fact  must  appear  re- 
markable to  those  who  know,  from  the  history  of  the 
conquest  of  America,  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and  the 
wonderful  courage  with  which  the  Spaniards  were  ani- 
mated in  the  sixteenth  century.  Hernan  Cortez  landed 
for  the  first  time  on  the  coast  of  Mexico  in  the  district 
of  Chalchinhcuecan  in  1519,  and  in  the  space  of  four 
years  had  already  constructed  vessels  on  the  coast  of 
the  South  Sea  at  Zacatula  and  Tehuantepec.  In  1537, 
Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza  de  Vaca  appeared  with  two  of 
his  companions,  worn  out  with  fatigue,  naked,  and 
covered  with  wounds,  on  the  coast  of  Culiacan,  oppo- 
site the  peninsula  of  California.  He  had  landed  with 
Panfilo  Narvaez  in  Florida,  and  after  two  years'  ex- 
cursions, wandering  over  all  Louisiana  and  the  north- 
ern part  of  Mexico,  he  arrived  at  the  shore  of  the 
great  ocean  in  Sonora.  This  space,  which  Nuiiez  went 
over,  is  almost  as  great  as  that  of  the  route  followed 
by  Captain  Lewis  from  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi 
to  Nootka  and  the  mouth  of  the  river  Columbia.* 


*  "  This  wonderful  journey  of  Captain  Lewis  was  undertaken 
under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  by  this  important  ser- 


10         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA. 

When  we  consider  the  bold  undertakings  of  the  first 
Spanish  conquerors  in  Mexico,  Peru,  and  on  the  Ama- 
zons River,  we  are  astonished  to  find  that  for  two  cen- 
turies the  same  nation  could  not  find  a  road  by  land  in 
New  Spain  from  Taos  to  tlie  port  of  Monterey"* 

Humboldt  here  was  undoubtedly  in  error.  The 
map  of  Father  Font,  before  referred  to,  shows  that  as 
early  as  1777  Father  Garces  traveled  from  the  mis- 
sion of  San  Gabriel,  near  the  Pacific  coast,  to  Oraybe, 
one  of  the  villages  of  the  Moquis,  in  New  Mexico. 
And  the  Spanish  inscriptions  found  by  Lieutenant  J. 
H.  Simpson,  Corps  of  Topographical  Engineers,  U.  S. 
Army,  on  the  rock  (El  Moro)  near  Zimi  in  New 
Mexico,  an  account  and  fac-similes  of  which  he  gives 
in  his  "Journal  of  a  Military  Reconnoissance  from 
Santa  Fe  to  the  Navajo  Country  in  1849,"-j-  show  that 
there  was  as  early  as  1716  a  communication  opened 
with  the  Moquis  from  Santa  Fe.  The  inscription, 
translated,  is  as  follows:  "In  the  year  1716,  upon 
the  26th  day  of  August,  passed  by  this  place  Don 
Felix  Martinez,  Governor  and  Captain-General  of  this 
kingdom,  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  and  uniting 
Moqui"  (a  couple  of  words  here  not  deciphered). 
The  manuscript  of  Father  Escalante's  journal,  before 
referred  to,  also  shows  that  there  was  a  well-known 
road  from  Oraybe,  via  Zuni,  to  Santa  Fe,  and 'which 
his  party  followed.  These  facts  show  that  at  least 

vice  rendered  to  science  has  added  new  claims  on  the  gratitude 
of  the  savans  of  all  nations."  (Xote  by  Humboldt.) 

*  Humboldt's  "New  Spain,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  289,  290. 

f  See  Sen.  Doc.  64,  31st  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  p.  123;  or  same  pub- 
lished by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  p.  104. 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  \\ 

as  early  as  1777,  and  most  probably  as  early  as  1773 
(the  date,  according  to  Humboldt,  of  Garces'  journey 
to  Gray  be),  there  was  a  communication  all  the  way 
from  Santa  Fe,  and,  without  doubt,  from  Taos,  via 
Moqui,  to  San  Gabriel;  and,  as  Father  Font's  map 
shows,  even  all  the  way  to  Monterey  and  the  Bay 
of  San  Francisco. 

Greenhow,  in  his  "Oregon  and  California,"*  repre- 
sents that  "in  1775  Friars  Font  and  Garces  traveled 
from  Mexico,  through  Sonora  and  the  country  of  the 
Colorado  River,  to  the  mission  of  San  Gabriel  in  Cali- 
fornia, making  observations  on  their  way  with  a  view 
to  the  increase  of  intercourse  between  Mexico  and  the 
establishments  in  the  latter  region.  They  were,  how- 
ever, coldly  received  by  their  brethren,  who  informed 
them  that  they  had  no  desire  to  have  such  communi- 
cations opened;  and  their  journal  was  never  made 
public."  Their  map,  which  Mr.  Greenhow  seems, 
however,  not  to  have  seen,  shows  that  Father  Font 
traveled  from  the  Presidio  of  San  Miguel,  situated  in 
about  lat.  29°  30'  and  long.  110°  30'  (probably  on  the 
Rabasaqui),  as  far  as  the  port  of  San  Francisco;  and 
that  Garces  traveled  only  from  San  Gabriel  to  Moqui. 
It  also  shows  that  the  "  Rio  de  San  Philipe,"  on  some 
old  maps,  was,  in  all  probability,  Kern  River. 

Greenhow  remarks  that  the  journals  of  the  expedi- 
tions of  Friars  Escalante,  Garces,  and  Font  are  still 
preserved  in  manuscript  in  Mexico;  but,  "from  all 
accounts,  are  of  no  value."  Humboldt,  on  the  con- 
trary ,f  speaks  highly  of  the  information  imparted  by 

*  2d  edition,  p.  114.  f  "New  Spain,"  vol.  ii.  p.  253. 


12         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO  CALIFORNIA. 

Font  and  Garces;  and  so  far  as  the  journal  of  Esca- 
lante  is  disparaged  by  Greenhow,  we  are  convinced  his 
criticism  is  unjust;  for  not  only  is  this  journal  writ- 
ten in  a  very  plain,  unpretending,  direct  way,  but  it 
abounds  in  excellent  and  apparently  just  observa- 
tions; and  it  is  wonderful  that  the  courses  and  dis- 
tances should  plat  so  correctly,  and  should  agree  so 
well  with  our  present  maps. 

The  next  published  account  we  find  of  any  portion 
of  the  Great  Basin  country  is  in  the  memoir  of 
Lieutenant  now  Brevet  Major-General  Gouverneur 
K.  Warren,  Major  Corps  of  Engineers,  U.S.A.  In 
this  memoir  is  a  letter  to  General  Warren  from 
Kobert  Campbell,  Esq.,  a  well-known  gentleman  of 
Saint  Louis,  who  was  long  connected  with  the  fur 
trade  and  its  operations  in  the  tramontane  regions 
of  the  West.*  In  this  letter  Mr.  Campbell  gives  ver- 
batim the  statement  of  Mr.  James  Bridger,  corrobo- 
rated by  Mr.  Samuel  Tolleck,  both  Indian  traders,  to 
the  effect  that  he,  Bridger,  was  the  first  discoverer  of 
Great  Salt  Lake,  in  the  winters  of  1821  and  1825. 

Mr.  Bridger  further  states,  in  Mr.  Campbell's  letter, 
that  "in  the  spring  of  1826  four  men  went  in' skin 
boats  around  it  (the  Great  Salt  Lake),  to  discover  if 
any  streams  containing  beaver  were  to  be  found 
emptying  into  it,  but  returned  with  indifferent  suc- 
cess." Washington  Irving,  in  his  "  Bonneville's  Ad- 
ventures," revised  edition,  page  186,  says,  "Captain 
Sublette,  in  one  of  his  early  expeditions  across  the 

*  Lieutenant  Warren's  Memoir,  vol.  xi.;  Pac.  R.  K.  Reports, 
p.  35. 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  13 

mountains,  is  said  to  have  sent  four  men,  in  a  sldn 
canoe,  to  explore  the  lake,  who  professed  to  have 
navigated  all  round  it;  but  to  have  suffered  exces- 
sively from  thirst,  the  water  of  the  lake  being  ex- 
tremely salt,  and  there  being  no  fresh  streams  running 
into  it. 

"Captain  Bonneville  doubts  this  report,  or  that  the 
men  accomplished  the  circumnavigation;  because,  he 
says,  the  lake  receives  several  large  streams  from  the 
mountains  which  bound  it  to  the  east." 

It  would  thus  appear  that  Sublette  in  all  probability 
was  the  person  who  sent  out  the  four  men  referred  to 
by  Bridger,  in  a  skin  canoe  to  explore  the  lake;  and, 
though  Bonneville  doubts  the  report  of  the  occur- 
rence, yet  the  testimony  of  Bridger  is  corroborative 
of  the  fact;  and  the  circumstance  of  its  being  an 
actual  fact  that  there  are  no  fresh -water  streams 
coming  into  the  lake  on  its  west  shore,  along  its 
whole  length,  certainly  accounts  for  the  thirst  of 
Subletted  party.  It  may  be  true  that  Subletted  party 
did  not  discover  the  fresh-water  streams  running  into 
the  lake  from  the  south  and  east;  but  this  only 
shows  that  they  did  not  explore  the  lake  thoroughly; 
not  that  they  did  not  explore  it  at  all. 

The  next  authentic  account  of  any  discoveries 
wghin  the  Great  Basin,  we  find  given  in  "Bonne- 
ville's  Adventures,"  by  Washington  Irving.  Colonel 
Bonneville,  U.  S.  Army,  it  would  appear,  was  the 
first  explorer  to  cross,  in  1832,  the  Rocky  Mountains 
into  the  valley  of  Green  River,  with  wagons* 

*  "  Captain  Bonneville  now  considered  himself  as  having  fairly 
passed  the  crest  of  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  and  felt  some  degree 


14         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE  TO  CALIFORNIA. 

To  quote  from  Irving:  "On  the  24th  July,  1833, 
by  his  (Captain  Bonneville's)  orders,  a  brigade  of 
forty  men  set  out  from  Green  River  Valley  to  explore 
the  Great  Salt  Lake.  They  were  to  make  the  com- 
plete circuit  of  it,  trapping  on  all  the  streams  which 
should  fall  in  their  way,  and  to  keep  journals  and 
make  charts,  calculated  to  impart  a  knowledge  of  the 
lake  and  the  surrounding  country.  All  the  resources 
of  Captain  Bonneville  had  been  tasked  to  fit  out  this 
favorite  expedition.  The  country  lying  to  the  south- 
west of  the  mountains,  and  ranging  down  to  Califor- 
nia, was  as  yet  almost  unknown ;  being  out  of  the 
buffalo  range,  it  was  untraversed  by  the  trapper, 
who  preferred  those  parts  of  the  wilderness  where 
the  roaming  herds  of  that  species  of  animal  gave 
him  comparatively  an  abundant  and  luxurious  life. 
Still  it  was  said  the  deer,  the  elk,  and  the  big-horn 
were  to  be  found  there;  so  that,  with  a  little  dili- 
gence and  economy,  there  was  no  danger  of  lacking 
food.  As  a  precaution,  however,  the  party  halted  on 
Bear  River  and  hunted  for  a  few  days,  until  they  had 
laid  in  a  supply  of  dried  buffalo  meat  and  venison; 
they  then  passed  by  the  head-waters  of  the  Cassie 
River,  and  soon  found  themselves  launched  on  an 
immense  sandy  desert.  Southwardly,  on  their  left, 

of  exultation  in  being  the  first  individual  that  had  crossed,  north 
of  the  settled  provinces  of  Mexico,  from  the  waters  of  the  At- 
lantic to  those  of  the  Pacific,  with  wagons.  Mr.  William  Su- 
blette,  the  enterprising  leader  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Fur  Com- 
pany, had  two  or  three  years  previously  reached  the  valley  of 
the  Wind  River,  which  lies  on  the  northeast  of  the  mountains ; 
but  had  proceeded  with  them  no  further."  (Bonneville's  Adven- 
tures, rev.  ed.,  p.  61.) 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  15 

they  beheld  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  spread  out  like  a 
sea;  but  they  found  no  stream  running  into  it.  A 
desert  extended  around  them,  and  stretched  to  the 
southwest,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  rivaling  the 
deserts  of  Asia  and  Africa  in  sterility.  There  was 
neither  tree,  nor  herbage,  nor  spring,  nor  pool,  nor 
running  stream;  nothing  but  parched  wastes  of  sand, 
where  horse  and  rider  were  in  danger  of  perishing. 

"Their  sufferings  at  length  became  so  great  that 
they  abandoned  their  intended  course  and  made  to- 
ward a  range  of  snowy  mountains,  brightening  in  the 
north,  where  they  hoped  to  find  water.  After  a  time, 
they  came  upon  a  small  stream  leading  directly  toward 
these  mountains.  Having  quenched  their  burning 
thirst,  and  refreshed  themselves  and  their  weary  horses 
for  a  time,  they  kept  along  this  stream,  which  grad- 
ually increased  in  size,  being  fed  by  numerous  brooks. 
After  approaching  the  mountains,  it  took  a  sweep 
toward  the  southwest,  and  the  travelers  still  kept 
along  it,  trapping  beaver  as  they  went,  on  the  flesh 
of  which  they  subsisted  for  the  present,  husbanding 
their  dried  meat  for  future  necessities. 

"  The  stream  on  which  they  had  thus  fallen  is 
called  by  some  Mary's  River,  but  is  more  generally 
known  as  Ogden's  River,  from  Mr.  Peter  Ogden,  an 
enterprising  and  intrepid  leader  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  who  first  explored  it."* 

*  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Humboldt  River  consti- 
tutes a  portion  of  the  Great  Basin  system.  Lieutenant  Warren, 
in  his  Memoir,  p.  36,  says,  "  The  party  from  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  referred  to  in  the  postscript  to  Mr.  Campbell's  letter, 
was  under  the  enterprising  leader,  Mr.  Peter  Ogden,  who  dis- 


16         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA. 

"  The  trappers  continued  down  Ogden's  River, 
until  they  ascertained  that  it  lost  itself  in  a  great 
swampy  lake,  to  which  there  was  no  apparent  dis- 
charge. They  then  struck  directly  westward,  across 
the  great  chain  of  California  mountains  intervening 
between  these  interior  plains  and  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific.* 

"  For  three  and  twenty  days  they  were  entangled 
among  these  mountains,  the  peaks  and  ridges  of  which 
are  in  many  places  covered  with  perpetual  snow. 
Their  passes  and  defiles  present  the  wildest  scenery, 
partaking  of  the  sublime  rather  than  the  beautiful, 
and  abounding  with  frightful  precipices.  The  suf- 
ferings of  the  travelers  among  these  savage  mountains 

covered  the  Ogden's  or  Mary's  River  in  1828.  One  of  Mr. 
Ogden's  party  took  a  woman  for  his  wife  from  among  the 
Indians  found  on  this  river,  to  whom  the  name  of  Mary  was 
given.  From  this  circumstance  the  stream  came  to  be  called 
Mary's  River.  It  is  also  called  Ogden's  River,  after  its  dis- 
coverer." 

Lieutenant  Warren  might  with  more  propriety,  we  think,  have 
said  that  the  stream  formerly  was  called  Ogden's  or  St.  Mary's 
River ;  but  since  the  explorations  of  Fremont  in  1845-46  it  has 
been  known,  by  emigrants  and  others,  entirely  as  the  Humboldt 
River,  the  name  Fremont  gave  it. 

*  Irving  is  here  in  error.  Walker  did  not  go  directly  west- 
ward from  the  swamp  (sink)  of  the  Ogden's  River  (the  Hum- 
boldt) across  the  great  chain  of  California  mountains  (the  Sierra 
Nevada) ;  but,  striking  southwardly,  continued  down  along  their 
east  side,  for  nearly  five  degrees  of  latitude,  before  he  crossed 
them  near  their  southern  termination,  by  a  pass  since  known  as 
Walker's  Pass.  We  get  this  information  from  Mr.  E.  M.  Kern, 
the  assistant  of  Fremont,  who  ten  years  subsequently  was  guided 
by  Walker  over  this  very  route. 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  17 

were  extreme;  for  a  part  of  the  time  they  were  nearly 
starved ;  at  length  they  made  their  way  through 
them,  and  came  down  upon  the  plains  of  New  Cali- 
fornia, a  fertile  region  extending  along  the  coast, 
with  magnificent  forests,  verdant  savannas,  and  prai- 
ries that  look  like  stately  parks.  Here  they  found 
deer  and  other  game  in  abundance,  and  indemnified 
themselves  for  past  famine.  They  now  turned  to- 
ward the  south,  and  passing  numerous  small  bands 
of  natives,  posted  upon  various  streams,  arrived  at 
the  Spanish  village  and  post  of  Monterey."* 

It  would  thus  seem  that  Walker  and  his  party 
failed  in  exploring  around  the  west  portion  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake,  on  account  of  the  desert  in  that 
region,  and  were  forced  to  take  a  route  along  the 
northern  section  of  the  Great  Basin  to  California; 
and  it  is  represented  by  Irving  that  on  their  return 
they  turned  the  Sierra  Nevada  at  its  southern  ex- 
tremity. This  being  the  case,  it  is  likely  they  took 
the  Spanish  trail  route,  which  Fremont,  ten  years 
after,  in  1844,  followed,  and  on  which,  at  Vegas  de 
Santa  Clara,  he  overtook  this  same  Joseph  Walker, 
in  charge  of  a  trading  party. 

The  next  authentic  account  we  have  of  any  ex- 
plorations of  the  Great  Basin  is  from  the  report  by 
Colonel  Fremont  of  his  expedition,  in  1843  and  1844, 
to  Oregon  and  California,  through  the  South  Pass, 
when,  on  the  6th  of  September  of  the  former  year, 
he  attained  the  summit  of  a  butte  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Weber  River,  whence  he  saw  for  the  first  time 


*  "  Bonneville's  Adventures,"  pp.  326-328. 
2 


18         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO  CALIFORNIA. 

the  waters  of  Great  Salt  Lake.*  Forming  an  en- 
campment near  the  mouth  of  the  Weber,  he  remained 
in  the  vicinity  a  few  days,  to  make  some  observations 
and  take  a  hasty  sketch  of  the  lake. 

Subsequently,  in  continuation  of  his  expedition,  he 
explored  in  the  following  winter  from  Fort  Vancou- 
ver along  the  east  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  or  along 
what  may  be  called  the  northwestern  edge  of  the 
Great  Basin,  as  far  as  the  vicinity  of  Johnson's  Pass, 
where  he  crossed  the  Sierra  to  the  valley  of  the 
Sacramento.  On  his  return  east,  in  the  spring  of 
1844,  he  turned  the  Sierra  Nevada  at  its  southern 
extremity,  got  upon  the  Spanish  trail  along  the  Mo- 
jave  River  in  the  Great  Basin,  crossed  the  Rio  Virgen 
and  other  tributaries  of  the  Colorado,  and  near  Las 
Vegas  de  Santa  Clara  again  entered  the  Great  Basin, 
and  explored  it  along  its  south  and  eastern  edge  up 
to  the  eastern  portion  of  Lake  Utah,  where  he  left 
it  and  crossed  the  dividing  ridge  into  the  valley  of 
Green  River. 

Colonel  Fremont's  report  shows  that  at  the  time  of 
this  expedition  he  had  not  seen  the  previously  pub- 
lished history  and  map  of  the  explorations  of  Bonne- 
ville,  for  had  he  done  so  he  would  probably  not  have 
been  led  into  the  error  to  which  he  attributed  most  of 
his  hardships,  of  constantly  looking  for  the  hypotheti- 
cal river  of  Buenaventura,  which,  as  he  supposed, 
took  its  rise  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  emptied 
into  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  and  upon  which  he  ex- 


*  Fremont's  Report,  Cong.  Doc.  No.  166,  p.  151,  published  in 
1845. 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  19 

pected  to  winter.  His  language  is  as  follows:  "In 
our  journey  across  the  desert,  Mary's  Lake,  and  the 
famous  Buenaventura  River,  were  two  points  on 
which  I  relied  to  recruit  the  animals  and  repose  the 
party.  Forming,  agreeably  to  the  best  maps  in  my 
possession,  a  connected  water-line  from  the  Kocky 
Mountains  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  I  felt  no  other 
anxiety  than  to  pass  safely  across  the  intervening 
desert  to  the  banks  of  the  Buenaventura,  where,  in 
the  softer  climate  of  a  more  southern  latitude,  our 
horses  might  find  grass  to  sustain  them,  and  our- 
selves be  sheltered  from  the  rigors  of  winter  and  from 
the  inhospitable  desert."* 

Touching  this  question,  Colonel  Bonneville,  in  a 
letter  to  Lieutenant  Warren  on  the  subject  of  his  ex- 
plorations  in  and  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  uses 
the  following  language ;  and,  as  it  bears  upon  the  fact 
as  to  whom  should  be  accorded  the  credit  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Great  Basin,  we  think  proper  to  make 
an  extract  from  it:f 

"GiLA  RIVER,  K  M.,  August  24,  1857. 
"DEAR  SIR: — I  thank  you  for  your  desire  to  do  me 
justice  as  regards  my  map  and  explorations  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  I  started  for  the  mountains  in 
1832.  *****!  Mt  the  mountains  in  July, 
1836,  and  reached  Fort  Leaven  worth,  Missouri,  the 
6th  of  August  following.  During  all  this  time  I 
kept  good  account  of  the  course  and  distances,  with 

*  Fremont's  Report  for  1843-44,  p.  205.  See  also  pp.  196, 
214,  219,  221,  226,  255. 

f  Lieutenant  Warren's  Memoir,  vol.  xi.;  Pac.  R.R.  Reports. 


20         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO  CALIFORNIA. 

occasional  observations  with  my  quadrant  and  Dol- 
land's  reflecting  telescope.  *  *  *  *  *  I  plotted 
my  work,  found  it  proved,  and  made  it  into  three 
parts :  one  a  map  of  the  waters  running  east  to  the 
Missouri  State  line;  a  second,  of  the  mountain  region 
itself;  and  a  third,  which  appears  to  be  the  one  you 
have  sent  me,  of  the  waters  running  west.  On  the 
map  you  send,  I  recognize  my  names  of  rivers,  of 
Indian  tribes,  observations,  Mary's  or  Maria's  River, 
running  southwest,  ending  in  a  long  chain  of  flat 
lakes,  never  before  on  any  map,  and  the  record  of 
the  battle  between  my  party  and  the  Indians,  when 
twenty-five  were  killed.  This  party  clambered  over 
the  California  range,  were  lost  in  it  for  twenty  days, 
and  entered  the  open  locality  to  the  west,  not  far 
from  Monterey,  where  they  wintered.  In  the  spring 
they  went  south  from  Monterey,  and  turned  the 
southern  point  of  the  California  range  to  enter  the 
Great  Western  Basin.  On  all  the  maps  of  those  days 
the  Great  Salt  Lake  had  two  great  outlets  to  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean:  one  of  these  was  the  Buenaventura 
River,  which  was  supposed  to  head  there;*  the  name 

*  Colonel  Bonneville  is  here  probably  in  error.  On  Finley's 
Map  of  North  America  (Philadelphia,  1826),  given  by  Lieutenant 
Warren  in  his  Memoir,  p.  30,  and  which  purports  to  include  all 
"  the  recent  geographical  discoveries"  up  to  the  date  stated,  the 
Buenaventura  is  represented  not  as  one  of  the  outlets  of  Great 
Salt  Lake  into  the  Pacific,  but  as  the  outlet  of  Lake  Salado, 
doubtless  Lake  Sevier  of  our  present  maps.  The  two  rivers 
which  are  represented  on  this  map  as  disemboguing  from  the 
Great  Salt  Lake  into  the  Pacific  are  the  Rio  Los  Mongos  and 
Rio  Timpanogos.  The  fact  of  Father  Escalante,  in  1776,  giving 
the  name  of  Buenaventura  to  a  river,  evidently,  from  the  plotting 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  21 

of  the  other  I  do  not  recollect.  It  was  from  my  ex- 
plorations and  those  of  my  party  alone  that  it  was 
ascertained  that  this  lake  had  no  outlet;  that  the 
California  range  basined  all  the  waters  of  its  eastern 
slope  without  further  outlet;  that  the  Buenaventura 
and  all  other  California  streams  drained  only  the 
western  slope.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  Mr. 
W.  Irving  named  the  Salt  Lake  after  me,  and  he 
believed  I  was  fairly  entitled  to  it. 

£  ##:&##  £  # 

"  Yours,  etc., 

"B.  L.  E.  BONNE VILLE, 

"  Colonel  3d  Infantry. 
11  LIEUTENANT  G.  K.  WARREN, 

"  Topographical  Engineers." 

It  must  nevertheless  be  stated,  in  justice  to  Fre- 
mont, that  though  Bonneville's  map  ignores  the  Bue- 
naventura River,  and  all  the  others  which  on  the 
old  maps  had  been  represented  as  flowing  from  the 
Basin  into  the  Pacific;  yet  that  this  fact  and  that  of 
the  existence  of  the  Great  Basin,  which  Fremont  has 
so  well  brought  out  in  his  report,  have  not  been  des- 
canted on  at  all  by  Irving;  and  thus  Fremont  may 
very  naturally  not  have  been  impressed  with  the  dis- 
coveries which  Colonel  Bonneville  has  more  recently 
brought  out  significantly  in  his  letter  to  Lieutenant 
Warren. 

of  his  notes,  Green  River,  and  which,  he  supposed  flowed  west- 
wardly  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  into  Lake  Salado  (Sevier), 
the  limits  of  which  have  been  left  undetermined  on  Humboldt's 
map,  points,  we  think,  to  the  origin  of  the  Rio  Buenaventura, 
and  its  subsequent  hypothetical  extension  from  Lake  Sevier  to 
the  Bay  of  San  Francisco. 


22        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA. 

We  would  also  state  that  it  would  appear  from 
Colonel  Fremont's  report  that  it  was  a  favorite  pur- 
pose of  his,  on  his  return  from  California,  to  cross  the 
Great  Basin  directly,  instead  of  turning  it  at  its 
southern  extremity.  He  is  speaking  of  what  occurred 
as  he  was  turning  the  southern  end  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  by  the  Tah-e-chay-pah  Pass,  to  get  on  the 
Spanish  trail:  "In  the  evening  a  Christian  Indian 
rode  into  the  camp,  well  dressed,  with  long  spurs, 
and  a  sombrero,  and  speaking  Spanish  fluently.  It 
was  an  unexpected  apparition,  and  a  strange  and 
pleasant  sight  in  this  desolate  gorge  of  a  mountain — 
an  Indian  face,  Spanish  costume,  jingling  spurs,  and 
horse  equipped  after  the  Spanish  manner.  He  in- 
formed me  that  he  belonged  to  one  of  the  Spanish 
missions  to  the  south,  distant  two  or  three  days'  ride, 
and  that  he  had  obtained  from  the  priests  leave  to 
spend  a  few  days  with  his  relations  in  the  Sierra. 
Having  seen  us  enter  the  pass,  he  had  come  down  to 
visit  us.  He  appeared  familiarly  acquainted  with  the 
country,  and  gave  me  definite  and  clear  information 
in  regard  to  the  desert  region  east  of  the  mountains. 
I  had  entered  the  pass  with  a  strong  disposition  to 
vary  my  route,  and  to  travel  directly  across  toward 
the  Great  Salt  Lake,  in  the  view  of  obtaining  some 
acquaintance  with  the  interior  of  the  Great  Basin, 
while  pursuing  a  direct  course  for  the  frontier;  but 
his  representation,  which  described  it  as  an  arid  and 
barren  desert,  that  had  repulsed  by  its  sterility  all 
the  attempts  of  the  Indians  to  penetrate  it,  deter- 
mined me  for  the  present  to  relinquish  the  plan;  and, 
agreeably  to  his  advice,  after  crossing  the  Sierra,  con- 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  23 

tinue  our  intended  route  along  its  eastern  base  to  the 
Spanish  trail."* 

Thus,  like  Father  Escalante  and  Walker,  Fremont 
was  foiled  from  directly  crossing  the  Great  Basin  on 
account  of  its  reported  arid  nature;  and  evaded  it  by 
keeping  along  its  southern  edge. 

The  next  authentic  account  we  have  of  any  explo- 
rations within  the  Great  Basin  is  to  be  found  in  the 
pamphlet  entitled  "  Geographical  Memoir  upon  Upper 
California,  in  illustration  of  his  map  of  Oregon  and 
California,  by  John  Charles  Fremont,  addressed  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States. "f  This  Memoir  and 
the  accompanying  map  show  that  Colonel  Fremont, 
in  his  explorations  of  1845,  entered  the  Great  Basin 
by  way  of  the  Timpanogos  River  ;J  followed  down 
the  valley  of  Utah  Lake,  and  its  outlet,  the  Jordan 
Eiver,  to  its  mouth  in  Great  Salt  Lake;  turned  this 
lake  at  its  southern  borders;  passed  westwardly  by 


*  Fremont's  Report,  p.  254. 

•)•  Seriate  Miscellaneous  Doc.,  No.  148,  3d  Cong.,  1st  Session. 

J  Fremont's  map  represents,  and  Lieutenant  Warren's  Me- 
moir gives  currency  to  the  error,  that  Fremont  passed  from  the 
Duchesne's  Fork,  up  Hariri's  Fork,  and  thence  across  the  divide 
to  the  Timpanogos.  This  is  a  physical  impossibility;  for  Morin's 
Fork,  or  White  Clay  Creek,  as  it  is  now  called,  is  a  tributary  of 
the  Weber,  and  instead  of  running  into  Duchesne's  Fork,  and 
being  thus  a  tributary  of  the  Colorado,  is,  on  the  contrary,  a 
tributary  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  In  other  words,  Duchesne's 
Fork  and  Morin's  Fork  are  on  opposite  sides  of  the  divide, — 
the  Uinta  range.  The  mistake  on  Fremont's  map  has  arisen 
evidently  from  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  draughtsman; 
and  Lieutenant  AVarren,  knowing  nothing  personally  of  the 
error,  naturally  has  given  currency  to  it. 


24        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA. 

Pilot's  Peak  to  Whitton's  Spring;  and  thence  bis 
party  was  divided, — Mr.  E.  M.  Kern,  with  Joseph 
Walker  as  guide,  striking  northwestwardly  for  the 
Humboldt  (Mary's)  River,  following  it  down  to  its 
sink,*  and  striking  southwardly  to  and  passing  along 
the  east  shore  of  Carson  Lake,  to  Walker's  River; 
and  Colonel  Fremont,  with  Carson  and  Godey  as 
guides,  and  a  portion  of  the  party,  striking  south- 
westwardly  more  directly  across  the  Great  Basin  to 
Walker's  Lake,  where  the  parties  again  met.  Here 
separating  again,  Mr.  Kern,  guided  by  Walker,  pro- 
ceeded southwardly  to  the  head  of,  and  along,  Owen's 
River  and  lake,  and  thence  to  Walker's  Pass  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  where  he  left  the  Basin  and  crossed 
the  Sierra  into  the'  valley  of  Lake  Tulare  and  the 
Rio  San  Joaquin.  Fremont,  on  the  contrary,  traveled 
northwardly  to  Carson  River,  where  he  crossed  it  at 
the  same  point  as  in  his  preceding  exploration;  and 
thence  to  Salmon  Trout  Creek,  up  which  he  traveled, 
and  crossed  the  Sierra  Nevada  in  latitude  39°  17' 
12"  N.,  or  38-2  miles  north  of  his  pass  of  1841. 

Lieutenant  Warren,  in  his  Memoir,^  has  erroneously 
reversed  the  respective  positions  of  Fremont  and  Kern 
in  their  explorations  after  separating  at  Whitton's 

*  It  is  generally  understood  that  Fremont  was  the  first  to 
establish  the  wagon  route  along  the  Humboldt.  This  is  a  mis- 
take. 

The  route  Kern's  party  took  down  the  Humboldt  was  already 
a  well-beaten  wagon  route,  which  had  been  used  by  Hastings 
and  other  California  emigrants  for  several  years  previously  to 
the  explorations  of  Fremont. 

t  Page  50. 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  25 

Spring.  He  makes  Fremont  to  explore  the  route  along 
the  Humboldt  River  and  Carson  Lake,  whereas  Kern 
was  the  topographer  of  the  party  which  explored  that 
route,  with  Walker  as  guide;  and  Fremont  explored 
the  route  more  directly  across  the  Basin  to  Walker's 
Lake,  which  Warren  as  erroneously  has  attributed 
to  Kern  and  Walker. 

The  Geographical  Memoir  of  Fremont,  as  already 
stated,  does  not  enter  into  the  particulars  of  his  ex- 
ploration of  1845  and  1846;  but  only  gives  a  general 
view  of  the  Great  Basin.  This  view  is  graphic,  and, 
in  the  main,  so  far  as  the  present  writer's  observations 
have  extended,  is  just,  and  corrects  some  errors  into 
which,  from  imperfect  data,  he  had  fallen,  in  his  pre- 
vious explorations.  The  idea  which  he  had  enter- 
tained of  the  Basin's  being  made  up  of  a  system  of 
small  lakes  and  rivers  scattered  over  a  flat  country, 
was  found  to  be  entirely  untrue,  and,  on  the  contrary, 
he  found  that  the  mountain  structure  predominated. 
The  long  stretch  of  mountain  range,  however,  which 
on  his  map  is  represented  as  being  the  continuation 
westwardly  of  the  Wasatch  Range,  and  as  separat- 
ing the  waters  of  the  Great  Basin  from  those  of  the 
Colorado,  is  evidently  hypothetical,  and  has  not  been 
corroborated  by  subsequent  explorers.  This  view, 
however,  in  no  way  militates  against  the  theory  and 
fact  of  the  Great  Basin  system  as  one  distinct  from 
the  valley  of  the  Colorado;  because,  as  is  to  be  seen 
in  many  instances  in  the  Basin  itself,  a  very  slight 
rim  or  rise  of  ground  may  be  the  divide  between  dis- 
tinct sub-basin  systems. 

The  next  authentic  account,  in  the  order  of  dates, 


26         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

which  we  have  of  explorations  within  the  Great  Basin, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  report  by  Captain  Howard  Stans- 
bury,  Topographical  Engineers,  of  his  "Exploration 
and  Survey  of  the  Valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake 
of  Utah,  in  1849,"  published  by  order  of  Congress. 
This  report,  however  erroneous  it  may  have  been 
in  its  discussions  of  the  Mormon  question  at  that 
early  date,  and  however  its  conclusions  may  have 
been  falsified  by  the  history  of  this  people  since  the 
date  of  the  report,  we  cannot  but  regard,  in  a  geo- 
graphical and  physical  point  of  view,  as  of  great 
value.  We  have  had  occasion,  in  many  instances  in 
our  reconnoissances  west  of  the  Kocky  Mountains,  and 
in  the  region  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  to  test  the  accuracy 
of  Captain  Stansbury's  work;  and  it  has  been  a  grati- 
fication to  us  to  find  that  his  report  and  map  have 
represented  the  country  so  correctly  and  been  of  so 
much  service  to  us.  To  him  and  his  assistant,  the 
lamented  Captain  Gunnison,  Topographical  Engineers, 
the  public  is  indebted  for  a  thorough  triangular  survey 
of  the  Great  Salt  Lake ;  and  to  them  is  the  credit  due 
of  a  complete  exploration  of  the  lake  around  its  en- 
tire limits;  a  feat  which  Joseph  Walker,  by  Colonel 
Bonneville's  directions,  attempted,  as  before  stated, 
sixteen  years  previously,  but  which,  on  account  of 
the  desert  lying  on  its  west,  and  the  consequent  want 
of  fresh  water,  he  failed  to  execute.  Stansbury,  how- 
ever, extended  his  explorations  in  the  Great  Basin 
only  as  far  as  Pilot  Knob,  a  prominent  landmark, 
sixty-four  miles  due  west  from  Great  Salt  Lake. 

The  next  authentic  account  of  explorations  in  the 
Great  Basin  is  that  by  Captain  E.  G.  Beckwith,  3d 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  27 

Artillery,  the  assistant  of  Captain  Gunnison,  Topo- 
graphical Engineers,  in  his  expedition  for  the  survey 
of  a  railroad  route,  near  the  forty-first  parallel  of  lati- 
tude, who  took  charge  of  the  expedition  after  the 
massacre  of  Gunnison  and  a  portion  of  his  party  by 
Indians  on  Sevier  Kiver,  on  the  26th  October,  1853. 
The  party  entered  the  Great  Basin  from  the  valley  of 
Green  River,  by  the  Wasatch  Pass,  and  a  creek  he 
calls  Salt  Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Sevier;*  and  thence 
they  returned  to  the  usually  traveled  southern  route 
from  Los  Angeles,  and  proceeded  by  the  way  of  Nephi, 
Payson,  Provo,  etc.,  to  Great  Salt  Lake.  In  the  ensu- 
ing year,  1854,  Captain  Beckwith  explored  some  of 
the  tributaries  of  Great  Salt  Lake  and  Utah  Lake, 
issuing  from  the  Wasatch  and  Uinta  Mountains, 
and,  passing  over  the  southern  end  of  Great  Salt  Lake, 
he  struck  generally  a  north  of  west  course,  across  the 
Great  Basin,  to  the  Humboldt  Pass  of  the  Humboldt 
Range;  thence  southwardly,  in  Ruby  Valley,  to  the 
Hastings  Road  Pass  of  this  same  range;  and  thence, 

*  Messrs.  Beale  and  Heap  passed  over  nearly  this  same  route  in 
1853,  in  advance  of  Captain  Gunnison's  party,  and,  after  reach- 
ing Yegas  de  Santa  Clara,  took  the  Spanish  trail  route  to  Cali- 
fornia. (See  Heap's  Journal,  published  by  Lippincott,  Grambo 
&  Co.,  1854.)  Colonel  Fremont  also  subsequently,  during  the 
winter  of  1853-54,  followed  very  nearly  the  route  of  Captain 
Gunnison  to  Grand  River,  and  thence  to  Parowan  and  Cedar 
City,  on  the  Spanish  trail ;  thence  his  course  was  directly  west 
over  the  Great  Basin  to  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which,  on  account 
of  snow,  he  was  obliged  to  cross  by  Walker's  Pass,  some  sixty 
to  eighty  miles  to  the  southward.  (Fremont's  letter  to  the  editor 
of  the  National  Intelligencer  of  June  13,  1854.  House  Mis.  Doc. 
No.  8,  2d  Sess.,  33d  Cong.) 


28        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

northwestwardly  across  the  mountains  lying  south  of 
the  Humboldt,  to  Lassen's  Meadows,  on  the  Hum- 
boldt  River.  Thence  his  course  was  westwardly, 
through  the  valley  of  the  Mud  Lakes,  to  the  Madelin 
Pass  of  the  east  range  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  where 
he  left  the  Great  Basin.*  It  will  be  noticed  that,  up 
to  that  time,  this  was  the  most  direct  exploration  which 
had  been  made  across  the  Great  Basin  from  Great 
Salt  Lake  City;  but  yet  it  was  too  far  north  and  too 
tortuous  to  be  of  great  value  as  affording  a  direct  wagon 
route  to  PlacerviUe,  Sacramento,  and  San  Francisco. 
Besides,  as  a  wagon  route  to  Lassen's  Meadow,  we 
believe  it  has  never  been  used. 

The  next  report  we  have  of  an  attempt  being  made 
to  cross  the  Great  Basin  directly  from  Great  Salt 
Lake  City,  toward  Walker's  Lake,  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  the  great  detour  by  tlie  Humboldt  River  and 
getting  the  shortest  route  to  San  Francisco,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  report  of  Captain  Rufus  Ingalls  to  the 
Quartermaster-General,  dated  August  25,  1855;  giv- 
ing an  account  of  the  movements  of  Colonel  Steptoe's 
command  to,  and  from,  Great  Salt  Lake  City  in  1854 
and  '55.  His  language  on  this  point  is  as  follows: 

"The  wagon  routes  across  the  continent  are  so 
very  rough  in  mountainous  regions,  and  always  quite 
circuitous,  particularly  from  Great  Salt  Lake  City  to 
the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  that  Colonel  Steptoe  took 
measures  to  have  the  country  lying  directly  west  ex- 
plored for  a  more  nearly  air-line  road.  Two  Mor- 
mons were  engaged  as  principal  explorers,  and  di- 

*  Pacific  R.  R.  Report,  vol.  ii. 


THE   GREAT  BA&IN  OF   UTAH.  29 

reeled  to  explore  from  the  south  end  of  the  Great 
Salt  Lake,  on  the  Beckwith  route,  or  near  to  it,  to 
Carson  Valley.  This  party  left  the  lake  in  Septem- 
ber, and  returned  the  following  November.  It  proved 
quite  an  extensive  trip,  owing,  in  my  present  opinion, 
to  the  tricky  character  of  the  Mormons.  They  made 
a  most  flattering  report.  They  said  they  had  dis- 
covered a  wagon  road,  along  which  a  command  could 
move  with  ease,  etc.,  saving  one  hundred  and  fifty  or 
two  hundred  miles.  The  colonel  had  not  seen  Lieu- 
tenant Beckwith's  report,  nor  had  he  any  other  infor- 
mation than  that  given  by  his  exploring  party;  but, 
being  deeply  sensible  of  the  importance  to  the  Terri- 
tory of  Utah  and  the  overland  immigrants  of  laying 
out  and  opening  a  more  direct  and  practicable  road 
than  the  crooked  ones  now  traveled,  he  determined 
to  take  his  command  and  the  large  wagon  train  over 
this  new  route. 

"As  spring  approached,  however,  the  chief  Mor- 
mon, who  had  agreed  to  act  as  guide,  became  rather 
restive,  and  evinced  an  unwillingness  to  go,  which 
caused  the  colonel  to  distrust  him,  and  shook  his  con- 
fidence in  the  report  he  had  made  of  the  road.  As  a 
matter  of  security,  another  party  was  organized  under 
'Porter  Rockwell,'  a  Mormon,  but  a  man  of  strong 
mind  and  independent  spirit,  a  capital  guide  and  fear- 
less prairie-man.  He  went  out  as  far  as  the  great 
desert  tracts  lying  southwest  of  the  lake,  and  very 
nearly  on  a  level  with  it,  and  found  that  at  that  sea- 
son they  could  not  be  passed  over,  unless  with  wings, 
and  returned.  It  proved  fortunate  that  we  did  not 
undertake  the  march  with  0.  B.  Huntington  as  guide. 


30        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

The  march  would  have  been  disastrous;  though  Rock- 
well  and  others  are  of  the  opinion  that  by  going  on  a 
line  some  thirty  miles  farther  south,  along  the  foot  of 
mountains  seen  in  that  direction,  a  fine  road  can  be 
laid  out,  avoiding,  in  a  great  degree,  the  desert.  I 
believe  such  to  be  the  case  myself.  I  am  clearly  of 
the  opinion  that  a  suitable  officer  could,  by  a  proper 
reconnoissance,  lay  out  a  road  passing  by  'Rush 
Valley,'  turning  southwest,  and  going  by  New  River, 
Walker's  Lake,  into  Carson  Valley,  and  save  two 
hundred  miles'  distance.  This  route  having  been 
declared  impracticable,  the  colonel  decided  to  pass 
around  the  north  end  of  the  lake,  and  thence  by  the 
Humboldt  to  Carson  Valley."* 

It  thus  seems  that  Colonel  Steptoe  was  deterred 
from  attempting  a  direct  route  across  the  Great  Basin 
toward  San  Francisco,  by  the  reports  which  he  had 
received,  and  took  the  old  roundabout  road  by  way 
of  the  Humboldt  River. 

We  have  now,  as  we  believe,  exhausted  the  subject 
of  the  Explorations  in  and  around  the  Great  Basin, 
up  to  the  time  when  the  writer  reported  for  duty  as 
chief  engineer  with  the  army  under  General  Albert 
Sidney  Johnston,  in  Utah,  in  August,  1858.  This 
history  shows  that  up  to  this  period  a  direct  road 
toward  San  Francisco,  from  Great  Salt  Lake,  or  Camp 
Floyd,  across  the  Great  Basin,  had  never  been  thor- 

*  Appendix  A,  Qr.-Master-Gen.'s  Report,  accompanying  Sec. 
War's  Annual  Report,  1855,  constituting  Ex.  Doc.  No.  1,  House 
of  Rep.,  p.  156,  34th  Cong.,  1st  Session. 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  31 

oughly  attempted;  but  that  in  every  instance,  from 
fear  of  encountering  reported  deserts,  explorers  had 
shrunk  from  the  task.  It  was  universally  believed 
in  Utah  that  at  this  period  not  even  a  Mormon  had 
ventured  to  cross  the  Basin  in  this  direct  manner 
toward  Carson  or  Walker's  Lake.  Some,  more  adven- 
turous than  others,  had  made  a  less  circuitous  bend 
than  the  old  route  by  the  Humboldt  River;  but  not 
one  had  accomplished  a  direct  journey  across. 

It  was  the  failure  on  the  part  of  others  to  accom- 
plish this  desirable  exploration,  as  well  as  the  possible 
advantages  of  a  new  and  short  road,  that  stimulated 
the  writer  to  make,  through  General  Johnston,  a  pro- 
ject of  exploration  to  the  War  Department,  which  had 
in  view  the  accomplishment  of  this  very  enterprise ; 
and  thus,  if  possible,  the  opening  of  a  wagon  road  that 
would  be  of  benefit  to  the  army  and  to  the  nation. 

His  project  of  exploration  was  approved  by  Gen- 
eral Johnston;  sanctioned  by  the  War  Department; 
and  under  the  authority  of  the  latter,  the  expedition 
was  ordered,  and  consequently  received  the  complete 
outfit  it  did  from  the  general  commanding.  The 
party  consisted  of  Captain  J.  H.  Simpson,  Topo- 
graphical Engineers  (now  Colonel  of  Engineers  and 
Brevet  Brigadier-General  U.  S.  Army),  in  command 
of  expedition ;  assistants  Lieutenant  J.  L.  Kirby 
Smith,  Topographical  Engineers,  U.  S.  Army,  in 
charge  of  astronomical  observations  with  sextant  for 
latitude  and  time  or  longitude;  Lieutenant  Halde- 
man  L.  Putman,*  Topographical  Engineers,  U.  S. 

*  Lieutenant  Smith  was  mortally  wounded  while  "changing 
front  forward"  with  his  regiment  to  repulse  a  desperate  attack  of 


32         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

Army,  in  charge  of  compass  survey  of  route  and  to- 
pography of  country,  observations  with  astronomical 
transit  for  longitude,  and  with  dip  circle  and  magnet- 
ometer for  magnetic  dip,  declination,  and  intensity; 
Henry  Engelmann,  Geologist,  Meteorologist,  and  Bo- 
tanical Collector;  Charles  S.  McCarthy,  Collector  of 
Specimens  of  Natural  History,  and  Taxidermist;  C.  C. 
Mills,  Photographer;  Edward  Jagiello  and  Win.  Lee, 
assistants  to  Astronomer,  Meteorologist,  and  Photog- 
rapher; and  Mr.  Reese  as  Guide,  and  "Pete,"  a  Ute 
Indian,  assistant. 

The  party  had  twelve  six-mule  wagons  to  carry 
supplies,  and  two  spring-wagons  to  convey  the  in- 
struments; and,  with  the  Topographical  and  Quar- 
termaster's employes  and  military  escort,  all  told, 
numbered  sixty-four  men.  Lieutenant  Alexander 
Murry,  10th  Infantry,  U.  S.  Army,  commanded  the 
escort,  and  Assistant-Surgeon  Joseph  C.  Baily,  U.  S. 
Army,  accompanied  the  expedition  as  surgeon.  The 
party  was  rationed  for  three  months,  and  starting 
from  Camp  Floyd  (since  called  Camp  Crittenden),  in 
Utah  Lake  Valley,  forty  miles  south  of  Great  Salt 
Lake  City,  on  the  2d  of  May,  1859,  it  successfully 
crossed  the  Great  Basin  in  a  general  course  south  of 

the  rebels  on  Battery  Robinett,  in  the  battle  of  Corinth,  October 
3d  and  4th,  1862.  For  "gallant  and  meritorious  services"  in  this 
battle,  he  was  brevetted  colonel. 

Lieutenant  Putman  was  killed,  July  18,  1863,  at  the  head  of 
his  troops  in  their  assault  of  Fort  Wagner,  S.  C.,  and  brevetted 
same  day  for  "  gallant  and  meritorious"  services. 

Both  Smith  and  Putman  were  brave  and  accomplished  Union 
officers,  and  the  service  lost  none  more  promising  during  the  war. 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  33 

west  to  Genoa,  near  the  head  of  Carson  Kiver  at  the 
east  foot  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  returned  to  Camp 
Floyd  on  the  5th  of  August  following;  thus  accom- 
plishing the  reconnoissance  in  three  months  and  three 
days,  the  provisions  lasting  "to  a  notch,"  and  without 
the  loss  of  a  single  man  or  horse. 

The  result  of  the  expedition  was  the  opening  of 
two  new,  practicable  wagon  routes  across  the  Great 
Basin;  the  shorter  of  which  lessened  the  distance  be- 
tween Great  Salt  Lake  City  and  San  Francisco  a 
trifle  over  two  hundred  miles;  and  the  other  about 
one  hundred  and  eighty  miles.  Immediately  the 
first-mentioned  became  the  postal  route;  the  "Pony 
Express"  commenced  its  trips  over  it,  and  emigrants 
to  California  have  used  it  ever  since.  Also  by  the 
recommendation  of  Captain  Simpson,  and  the  efforts 
of  Colonel  Bee,  the  then  President  of  the  Overland 
Telegraph  Company,  which  at  that  date  had  ex- 
tended its  wires  only  from  San  Francisco  a  distance 
of  two  hundred  arid  fifty  miles  to  Genoa,  Congress 
was  induced  to  pass  the  bill  incorporating  the  Over- 
land Telegraph  Company  and  authorizing  it  to 
construct  a  telegraph  across  the  continent  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  It  was  the  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance of  Captain  Simpson  finding  so  feasible  a 
telegraph  route  and  reporting  it  to  Colonel  Bee,  that 
induced  the  latter  to  go  on  to  Washington  from  Cali- 
fornia and  press  the  matter  of  the  Overland  Tele- 
graph through  Congress  to  a  successful  result. 

The  report  of  this  expedition  of  Captain  Simpson 
cost  him  no  inconsiderable  labor;  and,  illustrated  as 
it  is  by  a  complete  map,  meteorological  profiles,  and 

3 


34        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

numerous  sketches,  and  supported  by  reports  on  the 
geological,  botanical,  and  meteorological  character  of 
the  country  traversed,  from  the  most  distinguished 
scientific  men  of  the  country,  and  giving  information 
of  a  region  over  which  it  is  believed  no  white  man  ever 
traveled  before  the  expedition  referred  to;  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  Congress  has  not  yet  ordered  the  report, 
as  repeatedly  recommended  by  the  Engineer  Depart- 
ment, to  be  published.  Twice  have  the  Committees 
on  Printing  in  the  Senate  reported  favorably  as  to 
the  character  of  the  report  and  expediency  of  its 
publication;  but  either  from  the  expense,  or  some 
other  cause,  the  results  of  the  expedition,  though 
costing  the  government  at  least  sixty  thousand  dol- 
lars, are  to  be  found  only  in  the  Bureau  of  Engineers 
at  Washington;  and  thus  the  emigrants  who  make  use 
of  the  road,  and  the  Pacific  Railroad  Companies  who 
have  been  constantly  asking  for  it  for  their  purposes, 
have  been  deprived  of  all  the  benefit  of  the  explora- 
tions. It  is  to  be  hoped  that  some  member  of  Con- 
gress who  has  an  eye  to  the  interests  of  the  country 
at  large,  and  who  is  not  willing  that  all  the  cost  and 
labor  of  the  expedition  referred  to,  over  so  interest- 
ing a  section  of  country,  should  be  lost,  will  yet  ask 
for  the  publication  of  this  report  and  have  influence 
enough  to  get  it  ordered  by  Congress.  Assuredly, 
the  expense  of  printing  the  map,  profiles,  and  text 
of  the  report  would  not  be  much;  and  this  Congress 
should  at  least  do,  if  it  finds  that  to  include  the 
sketches  would  make  the  cost  of  the  publication  too 
great. 

Having  said  thus  much  with  regard  to  the  import- 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  35 

ant  results  of  the  author's  expedition,  it  may  not 
prove  uninteresting  to  the  reader  to  be  informed  of 
some  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  country  ex- 
plored by  him. 

The  first  thing  which  will  strike  one,  on  looking  at 
the  map,  is  the  great  number  of  mountain  ranges 
which  the  routes  cross  in  the  Great  Basin.  This 
will  appear  the  more  remarkable,  as  the  idea  has 
been  generally  entertained,  since  the  explorations  of 
Fremont  in  1843  and  1844  (though,  as  before  re- 
marked, he  corrected  the  error  on  his  succeeding  ex- 
pedition), that  this  Great  Basin  was  a  flat  country 
scattered  over  with  a  system  of  small  lakes  and  rivers, 
and  destitute  of  mountains.  The  fact,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  that  it  is  probably  the  most  mountainous 
region,  considering  its  extent,  within  the  limits  of 
our  country,  and  so  far  from  being  scattered  over 
with  a  system  of  small  lakes  and  rivers,  which 
seems  to  imply  a  considerable  number  of  this  kind 
of  water  area,  it  has  but  a  limited  number  of  lakes, 
and  they  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  bases  of  the 
great  Sierras  which  bound  the  Basin. 

These  lakes  are — proceeding  from  north  to  south, 
and  around  the  circumference  of  the  Great  Basin — 
Great  Salt  Lake,  Lake  Utah,  Sevier  Lake,  and  Small 
Salt  Lake,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Basin ;  and  on 
the  west,  proceeding  from  south  to  north,  Owen's 
Lake,  Mono  Lake,  Walker's  Lake,  the  two  Carson 
Lakes,  Humboldt  Lake,  Pyramid  Lake,  the  Mud 
Lakes,  and  Lake  Abert.  Besides  these,  there  are 
Franklin  Lake  and  Goshoot  Lake,  to  the  east  of 
the  East  Humboldt  Range.  These  constitute  all  the 


36        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

lakes  that  have  been  discovered  in  the  Great  Basin, 
and  they  are  all  without  outlet.  Great  Salt  Lake  is 
seventy  miles  long  and  from  twenty  to  thirty  broad; 
Pyramid  and  Walker's  Lakes,  the  next  largest,  are 
both  about  thirty  miles  long  by  ten  wide;  all  the 
others  are  smaller.  Pyramid  Lake,  Walker's  Lake, 
and  Utah  Lake,  which  are  all  fresh-water  lakes, 
abound  in  fine  large  trout. 

The  principal  rivers  which,  on  account  of  their 
width  and  depth,  require  bridging  or  ferry  in  their 
flush  state,  during  the  time  of  melting  snow,  are  the 
Bear,  Weber,  Roseaux  pr  Malade,  Jordan,  Timpano- 
gos,  Spanish  Fork,  and  Sevier  Rivers,  which  have 
their  sources  in  the  Wasatch  Mountains,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Basin,  and  flow  into  lakes  near  the  base  of 
these  mountains;  the  Mojave,  Owen's,  Walker's,  Car- 
son, and  Truckee  or  Salmon  Trout,  which  have  their 
sources  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  flow  into  lakes  at 
their  base  and  sink ;  and  the  Humboldt  River,  which 
flows  from  east  to  south  of  west  along  the  northern 
portion  of  the  Basin  and  sinks.  The  longest  of  these 
is  the  Humboldt,  about  three  hundred  miles  long, 
and  the  next  longest  Bear  River,  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  long.  The  others  vary  from  forty  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  length.  In  width 
they  vary  from  about  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet,  and  in  depth  from  two  to  fifteen  feet,  depending 
upon  the  season  and  locality. 

All  the  other  streams  are  of  small  extent,  and, 
taking  their  rise  in  the  many  mountain  ranges  by 
which  the  Basin  is  traversed,  generally  from  north  to 
south,  they  seldom  flow  beyond  their  bases,  where  in 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  37 

the  alluvion  they  sink.  These  streams  are  usually 
so  small  that  one  can  jump  across  them,  and  seldom 
require  bridging.  The  large  as  well  as  the  small 
streams  mentioned,  when  not  brackish,  not  unfre- 
quently  contain  trout.  One  of  these  small  streams  is 
Reese  River,  called  so  by  Captain  Simpson  after  his 
chief  guide.  This  river  has  since  become  famous  on 
account  of  the  rich  silver-bearing  rocks  with  which 
its  valley  is  characterized,  and  its  being  also  the 
site  of  the  city  of  Austin,  which  so  suddenly  sprang 
into  existence  after  the  discovery  of  the  precious 
metal. 

The  trend  of  the  mountain  ranges  is  almost  invariably 
north  and  south,  the  limits  of  variation  being  between 
the  true  and  the  magnetic  north.  The  mountains 
rise  quite  abruptly  from  the  plains,  and  form  bases  . 
varying  in  breadth  from  a  few  miles  to  about  twelve. 
These  mountain  ranges  are  so  frequent  and  close  to- 
gether as  to  make  the  areas  between  them  more  like 
valleys  than  plains.  In  cross  section  the  valleys  are 
slightly  concave ;  and  Captain  Simpson  in  his  survey 
crossed  them,  in  a  direction  of  south  of  west,  on  the 
average  every  ten  or  fifteen  miles.  In  length  they 
are  commensurate  with  the  mountain  ranges.  Longi- 
tudinally, or  in  a  general  direction  north  and  south, 
they  are  nearly  level. 

The  most  massive  and  lofty  mountains,  commencing 
at  Camp  Floyd  and  proceeding  westward,  are  the 
0-quirr,  Guyot,  Goshoot  or  Tots-arr,  Un-go-we-ah, 
Mon-tim,  Humboldt,  We-ah-bah,  Pe-er-re-ah,  and  Se- 
day-e  ranges.  Of  these  the  Tots-arr,  Un-go-we-ah, 
Humboldt,  Pe-er-re-ah,  and  Se-day-e  are  the  most 


38        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

massive  and  lofty.  The  lengths  of  the  ranges  in  some 
instances  were  at  least  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles, 
and  they  then  extended  into  unknown  regions  beyond 
the  field  of  Captain  Simpson's  explorations.  These 
ranges  attain  in  the  case  of  Union  Peak  (so  called  by 
Captain  Simpson),  the  highest  point  of  the  Tots-arr  or 
Goshoot  Range,  an  altitude  above  the  plain  of  from 
five  thousand  to  six  thousand  feet,  or  of  from  ten 
thousand  to  eleven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  In 
the  case  of  the  0-quirr  Range,  the  highest  point  (Camp 
Floyd  Peak),  according  to  Lieutenant  Putman's  meas- 
urement, by  theodolite,  was  found  to  be  four  thousand 
two  hundred  and  fourteen  feet  above  the  camp  at  its 
foot;  and  as  this  locality,  by  barometric  measurement, 
is  four  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty  feet  above 
the  sea,  the  peak  referred  to  is  nine  thousand  and 
seventy-four  feet  above  the  sea.  The  highest  pass 
was  on  Captain  Simpson's  return  route,  and  through 
the  Un-go-we-ha  Range.  By  barometric  measure- 
ment it  was  eight  thousand  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  above  the  sea.  The  passes  are  all,  with  but  little 
difficulty,  surmountable  by  wagons;  but  their  baro- 
metrical profiles  show  that  they  are  too  steep  for  rail- 
road purposes.  These  barometrical  profiles  of  Captain 
Simpson,  to  which  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany have  had  access,  have  already  been  of  very 
material  service  in  obviating  the  great  expense  of 
another  survey,  to  which  the  company  would  other- 
wise have  been  obliged  to  resort. 

The  chief  agricultural  characteristic  of  (lie  country 
traversed  is  desert,  the  exceptions  being  as  follows: 
On  Captain  Simpson's  more  northern  route,  in  the 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  39 

case  of  the  large  valleys  between  the  mountain  ranges 
and  going  westward  from  Camp  Floyd — Rush  Valley, 
Pleasant  Valley  (the  valley  of  Fish  or  Deep  Creek,  not 
on  the  route  but  in  the  vicinity  of  Pleasant  Valley), 
Euby  Valley,  Walker's  Valley,  and  Carson  Valley. 
All  these  are  cultivable  in  limited  portions.  And  on 
his  return  route,  going  eastward  from  Genoa,  Carson 
Valley  (common  to  outward  route),  Steptoe  Valley, 
Antelope  Valley,  and  Crosman  Valley.  The  altitude 
of  these  valleys  above  the  sea  varies  from  three 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty  feet,  the  lowest 
depression  of  Carson  Valley,  to  six  thousand  one 
hundred  and  forty-six  feet,  the  altitude  of  Steptoe 
Valley.  Carson  Valley  has  already  shown  its  ca- 
pacity to  grow  the  small  cereals  and  garden  vege- 
tables; and  we  doubt  not  the  other  valleys  named, 
though  higher  in  altitude,  will  be  found  sufficiently 
warm  to  mature  the  growth  of  the  more  hardy  ce- 
reals and  plants.  Captain  Simpson's  return  or  more 
southern  route,  though  about  thirty  miles  longer,  is 
much  the  best  in  respect  to  cultivable  valleys  and 
grass. 

The  other  exceptions  to  the  desert  character  of  the 
Basin  are  the  small  narrow  valleys  and  ravines  of  the 
mountain  streams,  which,  taking  their  rise  high  up 
in  the  mountains,  course  down  to  the  plains  or  main 
valleys  and  sink.  These  valleys,  though  rich,  are  gen- 
erally too  high  above  the  sea,  and  therefore  too  cold, 
for  arable  purposes;  but  are  valuable  as  furnishing 
in  great  abundance  the  small  mountain  bunch-grass, 
which  has  fattening  qualities  almost  if  not  quite 
equal  to  those  of  oats. 


40        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE  TO   CALIFORNIA. 

Another  exception  to  the  universal  characteristic 
of  desert  is  the  abundance  of  tlie  dwarf  cedar,  which 
is  to  be  seen  on  almost  every  one  of  the  mountain 
ridges,  and  which  high  up  in  the  mountains  is  not 
unfrequently  intermingled  with  the  pine  and  moun- 
tain mahogany.  The  abundance  of  this  cedar,  as  well 
as  occasional  supply  of  other  kinds  of  timber,  has 
made  Captain  Simpson's  routes,  independent  of  their 
being  the  shortest  across  the  Great  Basin,  decidedly 
the  most  practicable  for  the  overland  telegraph. 

The  portion  of  the  country  traversed  which  may 
be  called  unqualifiedly  desert  is,  on  his  more  northern 
route,  the  region  between  Simpson's  Springs  in  the 
Champlin  Mountains,  and  the  Sulphur  Springs  at  the 
east  base  of  the  Tots-arr  or  Goshoot  Range,  a  distance 
of  eighty  miles;  albeit  the  grass  and  water  at  Fish 
Springs  intervene,  to  make  the  greatest  distance  be- 
tween water  and  grass  forty-eight  and  a  half  miles; 
between  the  west  base  of  the  Se-day-e  Mountains  and 
Carson  Lake,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles;  and  between 
Carson  Lake  and  Walker's  River,  a  distance  of  twenty- 
one  miles.  On  Captain  Simpson's  return  or  more  south- 
ern route,  between  Carson  River  and  Carson  Lake,  a 
distance  of  twenty-three  miles;  and  between  the  Perry 
range  and  the  Champlin  Mountains,  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  and  three  miles;  though  Chapin's  Springs  and 
Tyler  Spring,  with  their  limited  pasture-ground,  and 
the  Good  Indian  Spring,  with  its  small  supply  of  water 
but  abundance  of  grass,  within  this  interval  alleviate 
in  a  very  material  degree  this  last  stretch  and  take 
it  out  of  the  category  of  continuously  unmitigated 
desert. 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  41 

In  relation  to  the  propriety  of  the  term,  Great  Basin, 
being  applied  to  this  region  of  country,  we  remark, 
that  if  by  it  the  idea  is  conveyed  that  this  great  area 
is  chiefly  one  of  a  hydrographic  character, — that  is, 
filled  with  lakes  and  rivers, — it  is  so  far  a  misnomer. 
Erroneous  also  is  the  idea  that  because  it  is  called 
a  Basin  it  must,  as  a  whole,  present  a  generally  con- 
cave surface.  The  truth  is,  it  is  only  a  Basin  inas- 
much as  the  few  lakes  and  streams  that  are  found 
within  it  sink  and  have  no  outlet  to  the  sea. 

It  may  also  be  considered  as  made  up  of  several 
minor  or  subsidiary  basins;  and,  regarding  them  in 
succession,  not  in  the  order  of  magnitude,  we  have — 

1st.  Lake  Sevier  Basin.  Elevation  of  lowest  point  above 
the  sea,  slightly  less  than  4690  feet. 

2d.  Great  Salt  Lake  Basin.  Elevation  of  lowest  point 
above  the  sea,  4170  feet. 

3d.  Humboldt  River  Basin.  Elevation  of  lowest  point 
above  the  sea,  near  (Beckworth)  Lassen's  Meadows,  4147 
feet. 

4th.  Carson  River  Basin.  Elevation  of  lowest  point 
above  the  sea,  at  Carson  Lake,  3840  feet. 

5th.  Walker's  River  Basin.  Elevation  of  lowest  point 
above  the  sea,  seven  miles  above  Walker's  Lake,  4072 
feet. 

(Walker's  Lake  Basin,  estimated  at  about  same  as  Car- 
son), 3840  feet. 

6th.  Owen's  Lake  Basin.     Altitude  unknown. 

7th.  Mojave  River  Basin.  Elevation  of  lowest  point 
above  the  sea  (Williamson),  1111  feet. 

All  these  valleys  or  basins,  it  will  be  noticed,  are 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  Great  Basin,  just  within  its 
circumference;  and  as  the  valleys  of  the  great  central 


42         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA. 

area  have  an  average  altitude  of  about  five  thousand 
five  hundred  feet,  which  is  for  much  the  larger  portion 
of  the  area  about  fifteen  hundred  feet  higher  than  said 
basin,  and  for  the  Mojave  portion  over  four  thousand 
feet  higher,  it  will  at  once  be  apparent  that,  as  a 
whole,  the  Basin  should  be  conceived  as  an  elevated 
central  region  extended  over  much  the  greater  por- 
tion, and,  in  proximity  to  the  circumference,  sloping 
toward  the  sub-basins  bordering  the  circumference. 
When  this  idea  is  entertained,  and  this  extended 
central  portion  is  in  addition  conceived  of  as  being 
traversed  by  high  and  extensive  ranges  of  moun- 
tains, on  an  average  about  fifteen  miles  apart,  rang- 
ing north  and  south  and  forming  intermediate  valleys 
of  commensurate  lengths;  bearing  in  mind  at  the 
same  time  that  the  order  of  depression  of  the  basins 
is  from  Lake  Sevier,  where  it  is  least,  around  suc- 
cessively by  Great  Salt  Lake,  Humboldt  River  Val- 
ley, Carson  Lake,  Walker's  Lake,  to  the  valley  of  the 
Mojave,  where  it  is  much  the  greatest;  a  very  good 
mental  daguerreotype  can  be  had  of  the  Great  Basin 
inside  of  its  inclosing  mountains.  From  this  descrip- 
tion we  think  it  will  be  obvious  that  while  the  so- 
called  Great  Basin  is  in  some  small  degree  a  Basin  of 
lakes  and  streams,  it  is  pre-eminently  a  Basin  of  moun- 
tains and  valleys! 

In  regard  to  the  geological  character  of  the  mountains 
within  the  Great  Basin,  Captain  Simpson's  explora- 
tions show  that  from  Camp  Floyd  west,  as  far  as 
about  Kobeh  Valley,  those  of  carboniferous  origin  pre- 
dominate; though  over  the  desert  proper,  between 
Simpson's  Springs  and  the  Tots-arr  Range,  the  igneous 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  43 

are  a  characteristic,  and  near  the  Humboldt  Range 
those  of  the  Devonian  age  obtain.  From  Kobeh  Val- 
ley to  the  Sierra  Nevada  the  ranges  are  almost  ex- 
clusively of  igneous  origin,  and  present  few  indica- 
tions of  stratified  rocks.  The  knowledge,  geologically, 
of  this  extensive  terra  incognita,  for  the  first  time 
given  to  the  government  in  the  reports  of  Captain 
Simpson's  assistant,  Mr.  Engelmann,  and  by  Mr. 
Meek,  the  palaeontologist,  is  an  interesting  result  of 
the  expedition,  and  goes  far  to  fill  up  the  gap  that 
remained  to  complete  the  geological  profile  of  our 
country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  on  the  line 
of  Captain  Simpson's  explorations.  These  reports  not 
only  discuss  the  geology  and  palaeontology  of  the 
Great  Basin,  but  also  of  the  whole  route  through  from 
Fort  Leavenwort/i  to  the  Sierra  Nevada;  and  to  no  two 
geologists  probably  could  the  work  have  been  better 
assigned,  since  Mr.  Engelmann,  independent  of  his 
scientific  and  practical  ability,  was  the  geologist  of 
Lieutenant  Bryan's  expedition  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains in  1856,  and  of  Captain  Simpson's  expedition, 
from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  the  Sierra  Nevada  and 
back,  in  1858  and  1859;  and  Mr.  Meek's  well-earned 
reputation  certainly  pointed  him  out  as  the  most 
capable  person  to  whom  to  refer  the  palaeontological 
discoveries  of  the  expedition.  In  this  connection  it 
may  be  also  proper  to  state  that  Mr.  Engelmann, 
in  his  sub-reports,  has  devoted  a  great  deal  of  space  to 
the  discussion  of  the  meteorological  phenomena  of  the 
Great  Basin,  and,  illustrating  as  he  does  his  views 
by  accompanying  diagrams,  his  report  will  prove  of 
great  value  to  science  in  this  particular. 


44        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

With  regard  to  the  Indians  of  the  Great  Basin, 
Dr.  Garland  Hurt,  the  intelligent  and  brave  Indian 
agent  in  Utah  during  the  Mormon  difficulty  in  1857, 
1858,  and  1859,  and  the  only  civil  officer  connected 
with  the  general  government  whom  the  Mormons 
could  not  drive  out  of  their  Territory,  has  furnished 
Captain  Simpson  with  a  very  interesting  memoir. 
From  this  memoir  it  appears  that  the  Indians  of  the 
Great  Basin,  including  those  of  the  valleys  of  Green 
and  Grand  Rivers,  consist  of  two  tribes;  the  Ute  and 
the  Sho-slio-nes  or  Snakes. 

The  Ute  tribe  Dr.  Hurt  divides  into  the  PaJt-Utahs, 
Tamp-Pah-Uies,  Cheverlches,  Pah-Vants,  San-Pitches, 
and  Py-edes. 

The  Utahs  proper  inhabit  the  waters  of  Green 
River,  south  of  Green  River  Mountains,  the  Grand 
River  and  its  tributaries,  and  as  far  south  as  the  Na- 
vajo  country.  They  also  claim  the  country  border- 
ing on  Utah  Lake,  and  as  far  south  as  the  Sevier 
Lake.  They  are  a  brave  race,  and  subsist  princi- 
pally by  hunting.  The  buffalo  having  left  their 
country  and  gone  east  over  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
their  hunting  this  game  in  the  country  of  the  Arra- 
pahoes  and  Cheyennes  brings  them  in  continual  con- 
flict with  those  tribes.  Dr.  Hurt  says  it  is  his  opinion, 
from  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  them,  that  there  is 
not  a  braver  tribe  to  be  found  among  the  aborigines  of 
America  than  the  Utahs,  none  warmer  in  their  at- 
tachments, less  relenting  in  their  hatred,  or  more  capa- 
ble of  treachery.  Their  chief  in  1859  was  Arra- 
pene,  the  successor  of  the  renowned  Wacca,  sometimes 
erroneously  called  Walker.  Some  of  the  superior 


THE  GREAT  BASIN-  OF   UTAH.  45 

bands,  both  of  the  Snakes  and  Utahs,  are  nearly 
always  in  a  state  of  starvation,  and  are  compelled  to 
resort  to  small  animals,  roots,  grass-seed,  and  insects 
for  subsistence.  The  general  government  has  opened 
farms  for  these  Indians  in  the  valleys  of  the  Spanish 
Fork  and  San  Pete. 

The  Pali-vants  occupy  the  Corn  Creek,  Paravan, 
and  Beaver  Valleys,  and  the  valley  of  Sevier.  On 
Corn  Creek  they  have  a  farm  under  the  supervision 
of  the  general  government.  It  was  a  portion  of 
this  tribe  that  is  reported  to  have  massacred  Captain 
Gunnison  and  a  number  of  his  party  in  1858;  though 
Mr.  J.  Forney,  Superintendent  of  Indians  in  Utah,  in 
his  report  of  September  29,  1859,  fixes  the  stigma  of 
thi&  horrible  outrage  on  the  Mormons. 

The  Py-edes  live  adjoining  the  Pah-van ts,  down  to 
the  Santa  Clara,  and  are  represented  as  the  most  timid 
and  dejected  of  all  the  Utah  bands.  They  barter 
their  children  to  the  Utes  proper  for  a  few  trinkets 
or  bits  of  clothing,  by  whom  they  are  again  sold  to 
the  Navajos  for  blankets,  etc.  They  indulge  in  a 
rude  kind  of  agriculture,  which  they  probably  derived 
from  the  old  Spanish  Jesuits.  Their  productions  are 
corn,  beans,  and  squashes.  The  Mountain  Meadow 
massacre  is  ascribed  by  the  Mormons  to  them;  but, 
as  Dr.  Hurt  justly  remarks,  "any  one  at  all  ac- 
quainted with  them  must  perceive  at  once  how  ut- 
terly absurd  and  impossible  it  is  for  such  a  report  to 
be  true." 

The  jSho-sho-nes  Dr.  Hurt  divides  into  Snakes,  Ban- 
nacks,  To-si-witches,  Go-sha-utes,  and  Cum-um-pahs, 
though  he  afterward  classes  the  last  two  divisions 


46         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO   CALIFORNIA. 

as  hybrid  races  between  the  Sho-sho-nes  and  the 
Utahs* 

The  Snakes  are  fierce  and  warlike  in  their  habits, 
and  inhabit  the  country  bordering  on  Snake  River, 
Bear  River,  Green  River,  and  as  far  east  as  Wind 
River.  They  are  well  supplied  with  horses  and  fire- 
arms, and  subsist  principally  by  hunting.  They 
are  the  enemies  of  the  Crows  and  Blackfeet,  on 
account  of  the  buffalo  having  disappeared  from  their 
country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  their 
being  obliged  to  hunt  them  as  trespassers  on  the  ter- 
ritory of  these  tribes  east  of  the  mountains.  They 
have  also  been  at  war  with  the  Utes  for  several  gen- 
erations. They,  however,  profess  friendship  for  the 

*  Mr.  J.  Forney,  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  in  Utah, 
classes  and  numbers  the  various  tribes  and  bands  of  Indians  in 
Utah  as  follows : 

"  Sho-sho-nes,  or  Snakes 4,500 

Bannacks 500 

UintaUtes 1,000 

Spanish  Fork  and  San  Pete  farms 900 

Pah-vant  (Utes) . 700 

Pey-utes  (South) 2,200 

Pey-utes  (West) 6,000 

Elk  Mountain  Utes 2,000 

Washoe  of  Honey  Lake 700 

18,500 

"  The  Sho-sho-nes  claim  the  northeastern  portion  of  the  ter- 
ritory for  about  four  hundred  miles  west  and  from  one  hundred 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  south  from  the  Oregon 
line.  The  Utes  claim  the  balance  of  the  territory."  (Pres.  Mes. 
and  Doc.,  1859-60,  Part  I.) 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  47 

whites;  and  it  is  their  boast  that  under  their  chief, 
Wash-i-kee,  the  blood  of  the  white  man  has  never 
stained  their  soil.  It  is  certain,  nevertheless,  that 
small  parties  of  this  band,  living  in  Box  Elder 
county,  with  some  Bannack  Indians  from  Oregon, 
robbed,  during  the  season  of  1859,  three  parties  of 
emigrants  on  the  emigration  roads  to  the  north  and 
east  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  killed  ten  or  twelve  of 
their  number. 

The  Bannacks  inhabit  the  southern  borders  of  Ore- 
gon, along  the  old  Humboldt  River  emigrant  road, 
and  have  the  reputation  of  infesting  that  portion  of 
the  route,  and  of  being  of  a  very  thievish,  treacherous 
character. 

The  To-sa-ivitches,  or  Wliite  Knives,  inhabit  the 
region  along  the  Humboldt  River,  and,  according  to 
Dr.  Hurt,  have  the  reputation  of  being  very  treach- 
erous; though  we  believe  they  have  proved  quite 
friendly  of  late  years.  Captain  Simpson  met  them 
ranging  in  small  parties  between  the  Un-go-we-ah 
Range  and  Cooper's  Range  on  his  more  southern 
route. 

The  Go-shoots  Dr.  Hurt  classes  among  the  Sho-sho- 
nes;  but  according  to  Mr.  George  W.  Bean,  Captain 
Simpson's  guide  in  the  fall  of  1858,  who  has  lived  in 
Utah  ever  since  the  Mormons  entered  this  region, 
and  has  been  frequently  employed  as  interpreter 
among  the  Indians,  they  are  the  offspring  of  a  disaf- 
fected portion  of  the  Ute  tribe  that  left  their  nation, 
about  two  generations  ago,  under  their  leader  or  chief, 
Go-ship,  whence  their  name  Go-ship-utes,  since  con- 
tracted into  Go-shutes.  Captain  Simpson  is  disposed 


48         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

to  believe  that  they  are  thus  derived,  from  the  fact 
that  he  noticed  among  them  several  Utes,  who,  while 
claiming  that  they  belonged  to  the  Utes  proper, 
had  intermarried  with  the  Go-shoots  and  were  living 
among  them. 

These  Go-shoots  are  few  in  number,  not  more, 
probably,  than  two  or  three  hundred,  and  reside 
principally  in  the  grassy  valleys  west  of  Great  Salt 
Lake,  along  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Captain  Simpson's 
routes,  as  far  as  the  Un-go-we-ah  Range. 

In  addition  to  the  Indians  just  mentioned  as  inha- 
biting the  Great  Basin,  should  be  mentioned  the  Py- 
ute  and  the  WasJioe  tribes,  which,  not  being  within 
Dr.  Hurt's  jurisdiction,  were  not  included  by  him. 

The  Py-utes,  according  to  Major  Dodge,  their 
Indian  agent  in  1859,  numbered  at  that  date  be- 
tween six  thousand  and  seven  thousand  souls.  They 
inhabit  Western  Utah,  from  Oregon  to  New  Mexico; 
their  locations  being  generally  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
principal  rivers  and  lakes  of  the  Great  Basin,  viz., 
Humboldt,  Carson,  Walker,  Truckee,  Owen's,  Pyra- 
mid, and  Mono.  They  resemble  in  appearance,  man- 
ners, and  customs  the  Delawares  on  our  Missouri  fron- 
tier, and  with  judicious  management,  and  assistance 
from  government,  would  in  three  years  equal  them 
in  agriculture.  Their  chief  in  1859  was  Won-a- 
muc-ca  (the  Giver),  and  it  was  a  portion  of  this  tribe, 
under  this  chief,  who  had  been  engaged  just  pre- 
viously in  the  massacres  in  Western  Utah.  Their 
language  resembles  in  some  words  the  Sho-sho-ne, 
yet  it  differs  so  much  from  it  that  Captain  Simpson's 
guide,  Ute  Pete,  who  spoke  both  Ute  and  Sho-sho-ne, 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  49 

could  not  understand  them.  This  tribe  is  frequently 
confounded  with  the  Pah-utes,  with  which  they  show 
only  a  distant  affinity. 

The  Washoes,  according  to  Major  Dodge,  numbered 
in  1859  about  nine  hundred  souls,  and  inhabit  the 
country  along  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
from  Honey  Lake,  on  the  north,  to  the  Clara,  the  west 
branch  of  Walker's  River,  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles.  They  are  not  inclined  to  agricultural 
pursuits,  nor  any  other  advancement  toward  civiliza- 
tion. They  are  destitute  of  all  the  necessaries  to  make 
life  even  desirable.  In  1859  there  was  not  one  horse, 
pony,  or  mule  in  the  nation.  They  are  peaceable,  but 
indolent.  In  the  summer  they  wander  around  the 
shores  of  Lake  Bigler,  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  princi- 
pally subsisting  on  fish.  In  the  winter  they  lie 
around  in  the  artemisia  (wild  sage)  of  their  different 
localities,  subsisting  on  a  little  grass-seed.  The  In- 
dian vocabulary  appended  to  Captain  Simpson's  re- 
port shows  that  they  are  a  distinct  tribe,  and  in  no 
way  assimilate  with  the  Utes,  Sho-sho-nes,  or  Py-utes. 

The  Indians  all  along  Captain  Simpson's  routes, 
from  Great  Salt  Lake  to  Carson  River,  are  of  the 
very  lowest  type  of  mankind,  and  forcibly  illustrate 
the  truth  which  the  great  physicist  of  our  country, 
Professor  Arnold  Guyot,  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
has  brought  out  so  significantly  in  his  admirable  work, 
"  The  Earth  and  Man,"  to  wit,  that  the  contour,  relief,  and 
relative  position  of  the  crust  of  the  earth  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  development  of  man.  These  Indians 
live  in  a  barren,  and  in  winter,  on  account  of  its 
altitude,  a  cold,  climate;  and  the  consequence  is  that 

4 


50         THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

they  are  obliged  to  live  entirely  on  rabbits,  rats, 
lizards,  snakes,  insects,  rushes,  roots,  grass-seed,  etc. 
They  are  more  filthy  than  beasts,  and  live  in  habita- 
tions which,  summer  and  winter,  are  nothing  more 
than  circular  inclosures,  about  four  feet  high,  without 
roof,  made  of  the  artemisia  or  sage  bush,  or  branches 
of  the  cedar,  thrown  around  on  the  circumference  of 
a  circle,  and  which  serve  only  to  break  off  the  wind. 
As  the  temperature  in  the  winter  must  at  times  be 
as  low  as  zero,  and  there  must  fall  a  good  deal  of 
snow,  it  will  readily  be  perceived  that  they  must 
suffer  considerably.  Anything  like  a  covered  lodge, 
or  wick-e-up  of  any  sort,  to  protect  them  from  the 
rain,  cold,  or  snow,  Captain  Simpson  did  not  see 
among  them.  Their  dress,  summer  and  winter,  is  a 
rabbit-skin  tunic  or  cape,  which  comes  down  to  just 
below  the  knee;  and  seldom  have  they  leggins  or  moc- 
casins. The  children  at  the  breast  were  perfectly 
naked,  and  this  at  a  time  when  overcoats  were  re- 
quired by  Captain  Simpson's  party.  The  women 
frequently  appeared  naked  down  to  the  waist,  and 
seemed  unconscious  of  any  immodesty  in  thus  ex- 
posing themselves. 

The  fear  of  capture  causes  these  people  to  live 
some  distance  from  the  water,  which  they  bring  in  a 
sort  of  jug  made  of  willow  tightly  platted  together 
and  smeared  with  fir-gum.  They  also  make  their 
bowls  and  seed  and  root  baskets  in  the  same  way;  a 
species  of  manufacture  quite  common  among  all  the 
Indian  tribes,  and  which  Captain  Simpson  saw  in  his 
Explorations  of  1849,  in  the  greatest  perfection,  among 
the  Navajos  and  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico. 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  51 

Captain  Simpson  describes,  in  his  report,  a  visit  to 
one  of  their  hants,  as  they  call  their  habitations,  as 
follows : 

"Just  at  sunset,  I  walked  out  with  Mr.  Faust  to 
see  some  of  these  Go-shoots  at  home.  We  found,  about 
one  and  a  half  miles  from  camp,  one  of  their  habita- 
tions, which  consisted  only  of  some  cedar  branches 
disposed  around  the  periphery  of  a  circle  about  ten 
feet  in  diameter,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  break  off, 
to  the  height  of  about  four  feet,  the  wind  from  the 
•prevailing  direction.  In  this  inclosure  were  a  num- 
ber of  men,  women,  and  children.  Rabbit-skins  were 
the  clothing  generally;  the  poor  infant  at  the  breast 
having  nothing  on  it.  In  the  center  was  a  brass 
kettle,  suspended  to  a  three-legged  crotch  or  tripod. 
In  this  they  were  boiling  the  meat  we  had  given 
them.  An  old  woman  superintended  the  cooking, 
and  at  the  same  time  was  engaged  in  dressing  an 
antelope-skin.  When  the  soup  was  done,  the  fingers 
of  each  of  the  inmates  were  stuck  into  the  pot  and 
sucked.  While  this  was  going  on,  an  Indian,  entirely 
naked  with  the  exception  of  his  breech-cloth,  came  in 
from  his  day's  hunt.  His  largest  game  was  the  rat, 
of  which  he  had  quite  a  number  stuck  around  under 
the  girdle  about  his  waist.  These  he  threw  down, 
and  they  were  soon  put  by  the  old  woman  on  the  fire 
and  the  hair  scorched.  This  done,  she  rubbed  off  the 
crisped  hair  with  a  pine  knot,  and  then,  thrusting  her 
finger  into  the  paunch  of  the  animal,  pulled  out  the 
entrails.  From  these  pressing  out  the  offal,  she 
threw  the  animals,  entrails  and  all,  without  further 
cleaning,  into  the  pot." 


52        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

Mr.  Reese,  Captain  Simpson's  guide,  avers  that  he 
lias  seen  them  roast  their  rats  without  in  any  way 
cleaning  them,  and  then  eat  them  with  great  relish. 

The  rats  are  caught  by  a  dead-fall,  made  of  a  heavy 
stone  and  supported  by  a  kind  of  figure  4.  They  are 
also  speared  in  their  holes  by  a  stick  turned  up 
slightly  at  the  end  and  pointed;  and  with  another  of 
spade-form  at  the  end,  the  earth  is  dug  away  until 
the  animal  is  reached  and  taken. 

The  Go-shoots,  as  well  as  the  Diggers,  constantly 
carry  about  with  them  these  instruments,  which,  with 
the  bow  and  arrow  and  net,  constitute  their  chief 
means  for  the  capture  of  game.  The  nets,  made  of  ex- 
cellent twine  fabricated  of  a  species  of  flax  which  grows 
in  certain  localities  in  this  region,  are  three  feet  wide 
and  of  very  considerable  length.  With  this  kind  of 
net  they  catch  the  rabbit,  as  follows.  A  fence  or  bar- 
rier made  of  the  wild-sage  bush  plucked  up  by  the 
roots,  or  cedar-branches,  is  laid  across  the  paths  of  the 
rabbits,  and  on  this  fence  the  net  is  hung  vertically. 
The  rabbits  are  then  driven  from  their  lairs,  and,  in 
running  along  their  usual  paths,  are  intercepted  by 
the  net  and  caught  in  its  meshes. 

The  only  large  game  they  have  is  the  antelope, 
and  this  they  are  seldom  able  to  kill.  Their  mode  of 
taking  him  is  as  follows.  They  make  a  sort  of  trap 
inclosure  of  a  V-shape,  formed  by  two  fences  of  in- 
definite lengths,  composed  of  cedar-branches,  and  con- 
verging from  a  wide  open  mouth  to  a  point.  Within 
the  inclosure  and  near  the  vertex  of  the  angle  a  hole 
is  dug,  and  in  this  the  Indian  secretes  himself  with 
his  bow  and  arrow.  The  antelope,  being  driven 


THE  GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH  53 

into  the  mouth  of  the  trap,  is  naturally  directed  by 
the  fence  on  either  side  to  make  his  escape  at  the 
angle.  Reaching  this  point,  the  Indian,  whom  he 
has  just  passed,  pops  up  from  his  hiding-place  and 
shoots  him. 

Their  mode  of  starting  a  fire  is  certainly  very 
primitive,  and  is  described  in  Captain  Simpson's  jour- 
nal of  June  3d,  as  follows : 

"  On  reaching  our  camping-place,  which  I  call  the 
Middle  Gate,  I  saw  a  naked  Indian  stretched  out  on 
the  rocks  on  an  inclination  of  about  twenty  degrees. 
He  was  so  much  the  color  of  the  rocks,  that  he  escaped 
our  notice  till  we  were  right  upon  him.  On  being 
aroused,  he  looked  a  little  astonished  to  see  so  many 
armed  white  men  about  him,  but  soon  felt  assured  of 
his  safety  by  our  kind  treatment.  He  seemed  par- 
ticularly pleased  when  he  saw  the  long  string  of  white- 
topped  wagons  coming  in,  and  laughed  outright  for 
joy.  I  counted  twenty-seven  rats  and  one  lizard 
lying  about  him,  which  he  had  killed  for  food.  He 
had  with  him  his  appliances  for  making  fire.  They 
consisted  simply  of  a  piece  of  hard  ' grease-wood'  (so 
called)  about  two  feet  long,  and  of  the  size  or  smaller 
than  one's  little  finger,  in  cross-section.  This  was 
rounded  at  the  butt.  Then  a  second  flat  piece  of  the 
same  kind  of  wood,  six  inches  long  by  one  broad  and 
one-half  thick.  This  second  piece-  had  a  number  of 
semispherical  cavities  on  one  face  of  it.  With  this 
laid  on  the  ground,  the  cavities  uppermost,  he  placed 
the  other  stick  between  the  palms  of  his  hands,  and 
with  one  end  of  the  latter  in  the  cavity,  and  holding 
the  stick  in  a  vertical  position,  he  would  roll  it  Vapidly 


54        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

forward  and  back  till  the  friction  would  cause  the 
tinder,  which  he  had  placed  against  the  foot  of  the 
stick  in  the  cavity,  to  ignite.  In  this  way  I  saw  him 
produce  fire  in  a  few  seconds." 

As  illustrative  of  the  character  of  these  Indians, 
and  the  kind  of  country  to  which  they  attach  the 
most  value,  the  writer  gives  one  more  extract  from 
his  journal  of  May  27  : 

"An  old  Digger  Indian  has  visited  our  camp,  and 
represents  that  we  are  the  first  white  persons  he  has 
ever  seen.  He  says  there  are  a  large  number  of  Indians 
living  around,  but  they  have  run  away  from  fear  of 
us.  I  asked  him  why  he  had  not  been  afraid.  He 
said  he  was  so  old,  that  it  was  of  no  consequence  if 
he  did  die.  I  told  him  to  say  to  them  that  we  would 
be  always  glad  to  see  them,  and  whenever  they  saw 
a  white  man,  always  to  approach  him  in  a  friendly 
way,  and  they  would  not  be  hurt.  He  has  been  round 
eating  at  the  different  messes,  and  at  length  had  so 
gorged  himself  as  to  be  unable  to  eat  more,  until  he 
had  disgorged,  when  he  went  around  again  to  renew 
the  pleasure. 

"I  showed  him  my  watch,  the  works  of  which  he 
looked  upon  with  a  great  deal  of  wonder.  He  said 
he  would  believe  what  I  told  him  about  the  magnetic 
telegraph,  the  next  time  he  was  told  it.  He  is  at 
least  sixty  years  old,  and  sajs  he  has  never  had  a 
chief.  I  asked  him  if  his  country  was  a  good  one. 
He  said  it  was ;  he  liked  it  a  good  deal  better  than 
any  other.  I  asked  him  why.  Because,  he  said,  it 
had  a  great  many  rats.  I  asked  him  if  they  ever 
quarreled  about  their  rat  country.  He  said  they 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF  UTAH.  55 

did.  So  it  would  appear  that  civilized  nations  are 
not  the  only  people  who  go  to  war  about  their 
domain." 

The  writer  closes  this  account  of  the  Great  Basin 
of  Utah,  with  the  following  correspondence  on  some 
of  the  subjects  to  which  it  relates : 

"WASHINGTON,  June  14,  1860. 

''PROFESSOR  ARNOLD  GUYOT,  LL.D., 
" Princeton,  New  Jersey. 

"DEAR  SIR, — Permit  me  to  bring  to  your  knowl- 
edge that  I  have,  in  my  explorations  across  the  con- 
tinent, given  to  a  very  conspicuous  range  of  moun- 
tains over  which  I  passed,  the  name  of  your  worthy 
self,  by  which  I  feel  that  I  honor  less  a  distinguished 
votary  of  physical  science  than  I  do  honor  to  myself. 
Surely  one  who  has  spoken  so  modestly,  so  adoringly, 
so  well  of  Nature  as  the  handiwork  of  the  great  / 
Am,  and  has  shown  that  she  and  history  are  but  the 
counterparts  of  each  other,  both  illustrating  and  de- 
veloping the  Great  Intelligent  First  Cause,  and  His 
goodness  in  thus  '  arranging  all  things  for  the  educa- 
tion of  man  and  the  realization  of  the  plans  of  His 
mercy/  deserves  this  small  tribute  of  respect  and 
praise;  and  I  bestow  it,  as  I  have  said,  feeling  that  I 
do  not  more  honor  a  great  physicist  than  I  honor 
myself. 

"  The  range  of  mountains,  to  which  on  my  forth- 
coming map  I  have  given  the  name  of  Guyot  Range* 


*  Captain  Simpson  has  in  every  instance  preserved  the  Indian 
names  of  the  ranges  of  mountains,  where  he  could  learn  them. 


56        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

is  a  very  conspicuous  one,  trending  north  and  south, 
and  stretching  from  the  southern  shore  of  Great  Salt 
Lake  well  on  toward  the  Sevier  River.  It  lies  about 
thirty-five  miles  west  of  the  valley  of  the  Jordan  and 
of  Lake  Utah.  The  pass  through  it,  which  my  routes 
to  California  from  Camp  Floyd  take,  is  a  fine  one.  and 
I  have,  with  his  permission,  called  it  after  General  A. 
S.  Johnston,  the  distinguished  officer  of  the  army 
who  has  recently  been  in  the  command  of  the  forces 
in  Utah.  Its  altitude  above  the  sea  is  six  thousand 
two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  feet.  That  of  the 
highest  peaks  of  the  range  is  probably  about  two 
thousand  feet  higher. 

"  My  map,  profiles,  and  report  are  nearly  finished, 
but  not  sufficiently  so  to  be  presented  to  Congress  for 
publication  at  its  present  session. 

"  I  inclose  a  paper  read  before  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  anticipatory  of  my 
more  elaborate  report,  in  reference  to  the  palseonto- 
logical  collections  of  my  expedition.  This  may  soon 
be  followed  up  with  a  publication,  by  the  same  society, 
of  some  extracts  from  my  report,  which  will  be  more 
particularly  descriptive  of  the  new  species  of  fossils 
which  were  found. 

"  My  report,  I  think,  among  other  things,  will  illus- 
trate in  the  low  type  of  man  to  be  found  in  the  Indians 
of  the  ' Great  Basin'  of  our  continent,  called  'Root 
Diggers/  how  intimately  connected  with  the  contour,  re- 
lief, and  relative  position  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  is  the 
development  of  the  human  race;  and  will  add  one  more 
to  the  many  proofs  which  you  have  given,  in  your 


THE   GREAT  BASIN  OF   UTAH.  57 

6  Earth   and   Man/    of    this   important   geographical 
truth. 

"Permit  me  to  subscribe  myself, 

"Very  respectfully  and  truly,  yours, 

"J.  H.  SIMPSON, 
"Captain  Topographical  Engineers." 

"PRINCETON,  N.  J.,  June  20,  1860. 

"DEAR  SIR, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  your  most  acceptable  letter,  and  I  thank 
you  very  heartily  for  the  kind  feelings  expressed  in  it. 
Guyot  Range  of  mountains  will  recall  to  my  mind 
more  than  a  lofty  mountain  chain;  it  will  tell  me  of 
the  sympathy  that  truths  dear  to  me,  because  fruitful 
of  much  good  and  enjoyment  for  me  and  for  many 
others,  have  found  with  you.  Believe  me,  dear  sir, 
when  I  say  that  I  feel  particularly  gratified  to  find  a 
man  of  your  busy  profession  and  of  your  attainments 
so  well  acquainted  with  and  so  appreciative  of  the 
views  too  briefly  exposed  in  the  little  volume  to 
which  you  allude  in  so  kind  terms.  Common  con- 
victions and  a  common  faith  on  such  grand  topics 
are  a  bond  of  union  among  men  which  cannot  easily 
be  broken.  So  I  shall  now  feel  when  thinking  of 
you. 

"I  have  read  with  great  interest  the  geological 
notice  of  Messrs.  Meek  and  Engelmann  on  your  geo- 
logical discoveries.  The  presence  of  all  the  great 
geological  formations,  from  the  Silurian  and  Devonian 
up  to  the  Tertiary,  in  the  Great  Basin,  and  also  the 
circumstance  of  the  palaeozoic  rocks  constituting  the 
chief  formations  west  of  the  Salt  Lake,  are  data 


58        THE  SHORTEST  ROUTE   TO    CALIFORNIA. 

which  throw  much  light  on  the  geological  history  of 
this  continent. 

"I  shall  look  with  eagerness  to  your  coming  re- 
port for  more  light  still  on  these  regions  so  long  un- 
known, and  I  am  very  glad  that  you  did  not  forget 
the  study  of  the  poor  human  beings  who  were  the 
first  tenants  of  these  wildernesses,  and  of  the  influence 
that  the  niggard  nature,  amid  which  their  lot  is  cast, 
had  in  shaping  their  present  condition. 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  sir,  with  great  regard,  and 
very  truly,  yours, 

"A.  GUYOT. 
"To  CAPTAIN  J.  H.  SIMPSON, 

"  Topographical  Engineers,  U.  S.  A." 


FINIS. 


see: 


Sfcl 


